Prominent Canadians urge Trudeau to back arrest warrants for Israeli leaders

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) – Hundreds of former politicians, past Canadian ambassadors and current academics have urged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to change tact and back the arrests of senior Israeli leaders, media reported Wednesday.

They wrote in a joint letter that Trudeau’s stance that the International Criminal Court (ICC) should not put Israeli and Hamas leaders in the same category undermines support for the court, The Canadian Press reported.

Last week, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders.

Trudeau balked, saying he was concerned at “an equivalency between the democratically elected leaders of Israel and the bloodthirsty (Hamas) leaders.”

The joint letter, signed by 375 prominent Canadians, including former Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy and former attorney general Allan Rock, urged Trudeau to backtrack and express his “unwavering” support for the court.

That support would include Canada co-operating with any ICC requests, including the arrests, and denouncing any threats against the court’s judges.

“To assert that there is something objectionable about holding Israeli officials to the same standards of international criminal justice as Hamas officials is to promote a double standard and to suggest that the rights of Palestinians matter less than those of Israelis,” said the letter.

“That is a racist, dehumanizing and discriminatory approach to international justice which Canada cannot countenance in any way.”

In requesting the arrest warrants, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said “on the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe” that Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh, as well as Netanyahu and Gallant, “bear criminal responsibility for…war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Khan said in a statement on the ICC’s website.