Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the country would abide by the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for his Israeli counterpart Netanyahu and Israel's former defense minister Yoav Gallant and will arrest the two should they enter the country, he told reporters on Thursday at a press conference.
"It's really important that everyone abide by international law. This is something we've been calling for since the beginning of the conflict," he said. "We are one of the founding members of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. As Canadians, we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international court."
US President Joe Biden rejected the ICC's decision to issue the warrants, saying that "whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security." The United States, however, is not one of the States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, unlike Canada.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau confirms Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant will be arrested if they step foot in Canada after the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants. pic.twitter.com/QF1bw0p0EM
— Paris Marx (@parismarx) November 21, 2024
Canada is among 124 countries that are States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Hamas on Thursday welcomed the arrest warrants. "We call on the International Criminal Court to expand the scope of accountability to all criminal occupation leaders," it said in a statement.
Student protests across Canada the same day
The same day as Trudeau's comments on the ICC warrant, the Canadian province of Quebec saw about 85,000 students across over a dozen college campuses going on strike for two days, demanding their schools divest from Israel.
The main protest took place at Concordia University in Montreal but was joined by students from McGill and Dawson College.
Joanie Margulies, Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Mathilda Heller, and Reuters contributed to this report.