The families of three hostages currently being held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas have filed a lawsuit for NIS 20 million against International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, Israeli NGO Shurat Hadin, representing the families of Avinatan Or, Eitan Mor, and Omri Miran, announced on Wednesday.
Their lawsuit accuses Khan of turning the court into “a branch office of the terrorist organization” Hamas.
It demands that Khan be investigated for acting against Israel for ulterior motives – namely to sideline alleged sexual abuse allegations against him.”
Khan not only slandered the State of Israel and presented false representations to the plaintiffs, but also provided services to terrorist organizations and assisted them,” reads the lawsuit.
The lawsuit notes that it took him eight months to issue the warrants.
It adds that when Khan finally requested arrest warrants for the three chief Hamas leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh – he coupled them with warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. (All three Hamas heads were killed by Israel, over the past two years.)
The lawsuit further notes that warrants were not issued against leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which also held hostages captive, or against other Hamas leaders.
Shurat HaDin chief: The ICC has become a branch of Hamas
“The blood libels the defendant wove against the State of Israel and its leaders, by creating a false moral equivalence between the State of Israel – the victim – and the terrorists who hold the hostages and abuse them daily, granted legitimacy to the terrorists to continue extorting Israel while holding and abusing the hostages,” the lawsuit says about Khan.
Shurat HaDin founder and president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said, “The International Criminal Court has become a branch of Hamas. Through his direct actions, he gave an enormous tailwind to the terrorist murderers.”