Israeli public figures responded to the ICC announcement that it would investigate Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
Professor Eugene Kontorovich, Director of International Law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum said the ICC's opening of the investigation "is entirely unjustified - and predictable, given its longstanding lawless bias against the Jewish state."
"The Prosecutor today makes a mockery of international criminal law," he added, accusing the court of becoming a "judicial arm of the U.N. anti-Israel echo chamber."
"The Prosecutor treats Jews building houses as an 'atrocity crime' - while she has taken no action against the hundreds of thousands of Russian and Turkish settlers in Ukraine and Cyprus, both of which , unlike Israel are actual ICC member states. This shows she is not applying law, but politics."
Gideon Saar, chair of New Hope and candidate for prime minister, commented, "The ICC has allowed itself to be hijacked by sponsors of terror. This is a shameful day for the cause of justice. A government led by me will work with our allies and friends around the world to defend our moral army, and brave soldiers who risk their lives to keep us safe."
Brigadier General (ret.) Amir Avivi, Director of Habithonistim, a group of 1,800 retired Israeli generals, officers and Mossad operatives, said, “Anti-Semitism is alive and well in The Hague. The ICC decision will only strengthen the resolve of the Israeli security forces to fight harder to defend the Jewish people. When Israel is singled-out in the international community it reminds us why we so desperately needed a Jewish State 80 years ago. Never again will the Jewish people apologize for fighting to stay alive.”
Israel's Yamina party accused the International Criminal Court of anti-Semitism after the announcement.
"The court in The Hague is an anti-Semitic body immersed in hatred of Israel that encourages terrorism instead of fighting it. Its decision to open an investigation against the State of Israel undoes even the little respect that remains for this institution," the party said.
"While our enemy is firing missiles, placing explosives, stabbing and killing Israelis like animals, the court decides to investigate Israel instead of the child killers and suicide bombers. The IDF is the most moral army in the world and will continue to be so. No Fake investigation will prevent the State of Israel from protecting its citizens."
Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi said: "I do not join shouts of anti-Semitism, I am not afraid because I know the truth. Representatives of The Hague are invited to Efrat, to the sukkah at my home where Palestinians and Jews have sat together. They are invited to meet Palestinians whose lives have been saved by Jewish doctors. They are welcome to shop with me at the Gush Junction alongside Jews and Palestinians. My door is open to them so that they can see with their own eyes that apartheid and similar concepts are not consistent with our reality. They are invited so that once and for all they will tell the storytellers and instigators in English in Hebrew and in Arabic that they are impressed. As a Jew, a settler, a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, and a lawyer, I invite the representatives of the court in The Hague to Efrat.”
World Likud chairman and former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon: "This is a scandalous decision by the International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. It's time to prosecute the prosecutor for her crimes before she leaves office on 14 June 2021."