The International Criminal Court. Photo: ICC Website.

The Palestinian Authority’s minister of justice went on an antisemitic rant comparing the International Criminal Court’s recent ruling confirming its jurisdiction to investigate Israel for possible war crimes to the Nuremburg trials of Nazi officials.

The court ruling — which was condemned by Israel as illegitimate, since the country is not a member of the ICC — opens the door to what Israel believes will be a politically motivated persecution of its conduct. It also allows the ICC to investigate possible war crimes committed by Palestinian terrorists.

According to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch, PA Minister of Justice Muhammad Al-Shalaldeh appeared on “Palestine This Morning,” broadcast by official PA television, and in a disjointed statement said, “the Israeli settlers, or the Israeli war criminals — [ICC] General Prosecutor [Fatou ‎Bensouda] will now work in coordination with the Pre-Trial Chamber to prepare a ‎prosecution case relying on criminal proof and evidence, and there will be a list of ‎names that may begin— We can investigate the [Israeli] prime minister… ”

“The ICC will act according to a legal plan, according to the ‎legal measures for extradition and prosecution, and there were ‎experiences with this after World War II: the court in Nuremberg and ‎in Tokyo for prosecuting and punishing the Nazis,” he continued.

Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is one of the contemporary examples of antisemitism cited by the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the US State Department and governments around the world.

Al-Shalaldeh also compared Israel to the Serbian forces in the former Yugoslavia, who committed ethnic cleansing against Bosnian Muslims during the 1990s, citing their leader Slobodan Milošević as another figure prosecuted by an international court.