Meretz party chair, MK Nitzan Horowitz:
“Stop with the hypocrisy. We destroy diplomacy with the Palestinians, incessantly create settlements and outposts, occupy another nation more than 50 years, and then yell ‘antisemitic persecution’ when someone from the outside intervenes. You want others not to intervene? Then we need to solve the problem, and that’s in our hands. The path is the two-state solution, which will be good for both peoples.”
Meretz faction chair, MK Tamar Zandberg:
The International Criminal Court decision is “a disturbing and painful reminder that even if we close our eyes real tight, the reality won’t disappear. The Occupation isn’t just a ‘piece of shrapnel in the buttocks’ [as rightwing leader Naftali Bennett once dismissively called it], and peace with [United Arab Emirates] is important, but not instead of peace with Palestine. PR ‘Hasbara’ won’t help whitewash military rule over another people and the creation of Settlements—only a courageous initiative to end the Occupation and reach a diplomatic agreement [will help].”
Meretz MK Yair Golan:
“With regard to the [International Criminal] Court in The Hague: Our immediate obligation is to cooperate with it. Israel has nothing to hide, we’re a country of laws, and condemning or ignoring the [ICC] will do more harm than good. Our longer-term need is to separate from the Palestinians, preferably by agreement. Not for the [rest of the] world, but for ourselves. Only separating will ensure security, reconciliation, and peace.”
Meretz candidate and former MK Esawi Frej:
“The problem isn’t the [International Criminal] Court in The Hague. The problem is that many here [in Israel] think that we can occupy and annex, and the world will remain silent.”
Meretz candidate and former MK Mossi Raz:
The International Criminal Court “decided what should go without saying: The Occupied Territories belong to Palestine. Not to Israel.”
Chair of the Meretz party Executive Committee, Uri Zaki:
“Netanyahu boasts that his greatest diplomatic achievement is pushing the Palestinian issue off the agenda. The decision by the [International Criminal] Court in The Hague is a painful reminder of the price that Israel will pay for maintaining a criminal policy of halting diplomacy and removing the two-state solution from the agenda in favor of the Settlements.”
“The declarations by Netanyahu and the rightwing in favor of annexation are a danger to Israel. I greatly hope that no proceedings against Israelis are opened at the [International Criminal] Court. The claim all these years had been that the Territories are being held temporarily and therefore the [ICC] has no jurisdiction there. Netanyahu’s declarations about annexation, on one hand, and the lack of negotiations for six years now, on the other, were some of the arguments that brought the [International Criminal] Court to declare that it does have jurisdiction.”
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