Election winner conservative Merz invites Netanyahu to Germany despite ICC warrant

Germany's incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz has invited Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the European country in defiance of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant over the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The conservative leader, who is expected to become Germany’s chancellor, confirmed during a press conference on Monday that he invited Netanyahu for a visit despite an ICC arrest warrant.

“I told him that we should see each other soon after the government is formed,” Merz said.

Merz said he would find a way for him to do so without being arrested under the ICC warrant.

“In the event that he plans to visit Germany, I have committed myself to find a way to ensure that he can visit Germany and leave again without being arrested.”

"I think it is a completely absurd idea that an Israeli prime minister cannot visit the Federal Republic of Germany," Merz said.

The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party held a phone call with Netanyahu hours after his party won the most votes in Germany's national election on Sunday.

Netanyahu's office earlier said in a statement that the premier had a "warm conversation" with Merz, the leader of the CDU.

Netanyahu’s office in a statement called the invitation “overt defiance of the scandalous International Criminal Court decision to label the prime minister a war criminal.”

In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant over war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

The judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival”.

The court also said the men bore “criminal responsibility” for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the campaign of genocide in Gaza.

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It had been the first instance in the court's 22-year history it issued arrest warrants for Western-allied senior officials.

Media reports earlier this month confirmed that the plane transporting Netanyahu avoided the airspace of several European countries en route to the United States due to concerns over international arrest warrants.

The Maariv Hebrew daily, citing its sources, reported that the plane took an exceptional route to reach Washington to avoid entering the airspace of countries that have declared they would enforce arrest warrants against him in case of entry.

Several countries and human rights organizations back then hit out at the US over the current visit by the “criminal” Israeli prime minister. 

The United States and Germany are the main apologists of Israel’s crimes and its biggest suppliers of lethal weapons.

Israel has killed more than 48,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

The assault was brought to a halt under a ceasefire and prisoner-captive exchange agreement that took hold last month.

Israel faces an ongoing South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

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