Making Israel answerable for war crimes


April 1, 2015
Sarah Benton

Varied reports on this (possibly) momentous day from:
1) Al Jazeera: Palestine formally joins International Criminal Court;
2) WP: Palestinians join International Criminal Court to fight Israel, the most comprehensive coverage;
3) FT: Palestinians join ICC in politically charged move;
4) Ma’an: Gazans hope ICC will make ‘Israel pay’;
5) DW: Palestine officially joins International Criminal Court;


Palestine’s Foreign Minister Riad Malki, here taking part in a debate at the Human Rights Council, Geneva, July 23rd, 2014. Photo from #UNGeneva.


Palestine formally joins International Criminal Court

Palestinians join The Hague-based International Criminal Court, setting scene for potential legal action against Israel.

By Al Jazeera / AFP
April 01, 2015

Palestine has formally attained membership of the International Criminal Court, a move that could open the door to possible war crime indictments against Israeli officials despite uncertainty over its wider ramifications.

The accession on Wednesday is another landmark in the Palestinian diplomatic and legal international campaign, which gained steam in 2014.

The Palestinians moved to join The Hague-based court on January 2, in a process that was finalised on Wednesday, setting the scene for potential legal action.

“Palestine has and will continue to use all legitimate tools within its means in order to defend itself against Israeli colonisation and other violations of international law,” said senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from The Hague, said despite their membership, the Palestinians may still have to wait for the ICC to begin investigating Israelis accused of war crimes.

“This is such a heavily politicised case, that the court will have to think hard before taking action against the Israelis. It may be years before we something.”

Diana Chehade, a former ICC official, told Al Jazeera, preliminary examinations could be completed by the end of this year, but the court would not investigate cases already being looked in to by other judicial institutions.

“Based on the principle of complimentarity, the ICC would not investigate if an Israeli judicial institution is investigating a war crime to ICC standards,” Chehade said.

‘ICC train left’
The ICC has long been brandished as one of the Palestinians’ doomsday measures, along with threatening to end vital West Bank security coordination with Israel.

The notion of ICC investigations is outrageous to Israel, and Netanyahu has accused the Palestinian unity government – including Hamas which the Jewish state considers “terrorist” – of “manipulating” the court.

Israel retaliated swiftly and cut off millions of dollars in monthly tax payments it collects on behalf of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

The notion of forming a Palestinian state by negotiations was buried during this month’s election campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who pledged one would not be established on his watch, were he to retain his post as prime minister.

Netanyahu meanwhile released the held funds, which constitute two-thirds of the PA’s income, excluding foreign aid.

Some Israeli media reported that in exchange for unfreezing the money the Palestinians agreed to refrain from filing complaints to the ICC on April 1.

“It’s a huge lie. Taxes have nothing to do with our ICC approach. The ICC train already departed,” said Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for Palestine Liberation Organisation.

‘Absurd’ measures

April 1, however, will be primarily ceremonial, with Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki receiving a copy of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty.

While some Palestinian officials announced the date as the day they would file complaints against Israelis, in reality it is more likely they will wait, as state members are only able to draw the court’s attention to specific cases.

In addition, they will be holding on to see the outcomes of a preliminary probe launched by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on January 16.

At the same time that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas sought ICC accession, he also sent the court documents authorising the prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes that took place in Palestinian territories since June 13, 2014.

The unrest in June escalated to the summer war between Israel and Gaza fighters, which left dead 2,200 Palestinians and 73 on the Israeli side.

So far, no ICC investigation of Israeli officials has been launched and no time framework has been set for one.

But the Palestinians are confident they will happen sooner rather than later, considering “all the attention to Palestine” at the ICC.

The Palestinians reject the argument the Israeli officials cannot be tried at the ICC, because Israel is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, maintaining the court can also investigate crimes committed on the territory of member states.

“It’s absurd for the ICC to ignore international law and agreements, under which the Palestinians don’t have a state and can only get one through direct negotiations with Israel,” Netanyahu said in January following the announcement of the preliminary probe.
Among the forms of Israeli retaliation is legal assistance for victims of Palestinian attacks.

In February, a US jury found the PA and PLO responsible for six attacks which killed dozens and ordered them to pay the victims’ families more than $650 million in damages.



Palestinians join International Criminal Court to fight Israel

By William Booth, Washington Post
April 01, 2015

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Authority officially became a member state of the International Criminal Court at The Hague on Wednesday, opening an unprecedented new front in its self-declared “diplomatic war” against Israel.

Whether Israelis will ever be prosecuted in the court is uncertain, but the move to join the international body has angered Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed no Israeli military commander “will ever be dragged” before the tribunal.

Yet the Palestinians have gotten further in their bid than most would have predicted a year ago.

In a move once described by the Palestinians themselves as “the nuclear option,” they have now successfully joined the court, which many Israeli legal experts said would never happen. Also, the tribunal’s top prosecutor has launched a preliminary examination to determine if grave crimes were committed in the occupied territories and if the International Criminal Court (ICC) has proper jurisdiction to investigate.

U.S. diplomats warned the Palestinians not to join the court, arguing that the move would only further undermine already fractious relations with Israel; anger a Republican-controlled Congress that provides $400 million in annual aid; and dim prospects for negotiations to create a sovereign Palestinian nation.

Palestinian leaders, however, celebrated Wednesday, saying their accession to the court will serve both to protect Palestinians in the future and expose Israel to possible prosecution for past alleged war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Palestinian officials imagined a day when Israeli generals and senior officials might find themselves summoned to appear before the tribunal or be arrested on ICC warrants as they pass through countries that are members of the court.

“For us this is a very, very important step,” said Mustafa Barghouti, a top leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. “Now every Israeli soldier, every general will have consider the court.”

Barghouti said, “It changes everything. It changes the balance of power.”

The Palestinians allege that Israel committed war crimes during the summer offensive in the Gaza Strip, which left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, many of them civilians.

They also charge that Israel’s ongoing construction of Jewish-only settlements and demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank is a war crime, as it facilitates a transfer of populations into occupied territory.

Israel disputes this and Israeli legal experts counter that the Palestinian accession to the court means little.

“It is a useless public relations exercise,” said Allan Baker, former legal adviser and deputy director-general of the Israel Foreign Ministry.

Israel and the State Department have argued that the Palestinians should not be granted membership to the court because “Palestine” is not a true state.

The Palestinians tried to join the court in 2009 but were denied admission. However, after the United Nations awarded them “non-member observer state” status in 2012, the Palestinians’ application to become party to the Rome Statute and accede to the court was accepted earlier this year.

By joining the ICC, the Palestinians are also exposed to scrutiny. Israel has charged that the militant Islamic movement Hamas and its militia are guilty of war crimes for the indiscriminate rocket fire at civilian population centers in Israel. Amnesty International concluded the same thing in a report last week.

The human rights advocates have argued that both Israel and Hams committed crimes in the last Gaza war and that international tribunals and threats of war crimes charges may serve to restrain both sides in future conflicts.

After the collapse of the last round of U.S.-led peace talks last year, the Palestinians have launched a vigorous, focused campaign to “internationalize” their conflict with Israel through the ICC, the United Nations and its agencies, and by seeking resolutions and affirmations of statehood by foreign governments, especially in Europe.

“If the Israelis say the court means nothing to them, why are they the ones who are panicking?” Barghouti asked.

After the Palestinians submitted their paperwork to join the ICC in January, Netanyahu ordered his government to withhold the transfer of $375 million in quarterly customs taxes Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, who use the money to pay salaries, including wages for police.

On advice of his security team, who were fearful about a breakdown in law and order in the West Bank, Netanyahu reversed himself and announced on Friday that Israel will begin transferring the funds again.

Saeb Erekat, the former chief peace negotiator for the Palestinians, called joining the court “historic.”

Earlier Erekat complained that Palestinians were damned by Israel and the United States no matter what.

“I’m telling Palestinians, ‘Don’t use violence.’ We’re going to use the civilized means of international law to achieve our goals, our independence, our freedom,” Erekat told foreign reporters at a recent briefing.

“Then people threaten me that if I go to court, they’re going to suspend my aid and so on,” he said. “No! I am the victim. They should go to those who commit the crimes and tell them to stop committing crimes and then we don’t have to go to courts.”

The United States, China, Russia and other world powers are not members of the ICC, but 123 countries are, including 28 members of the European Union.

The ICC’s top prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, began a preliminary examination “into the situation in Palestine” on Jan. 16 to consider issues of jurisdiction, admissibility and the interests of justice.

The ICC was only established in 2003. Preliminary examinations by the prosecutor’s office have lasted for months and in some cases for 10 years — and counting.

Palestinian officials have stressed that the ICC will not end the almost 50-year Israeli military occupation or lead to a state. The ICC prosecutes individuals, not nations.

If the ICC prosecutor concludes the facts lead her to open a formal investigation, a pre-trial chamber of ICC judges will rule whether to go forward or not. A trial may then follow.

ICC prosecutors have examined allegations of war crimes in 20 countries but opened investigations in only eight. The court has concluded three trials, winning two convictions.

Eugene Kontorovich of Northwestern University School of Law said that it is possible the judges at the ICC will ultimately decide that the Palestinians do not have standing at the court or that the Israelis should not be subject to an investigation, for example, because they carry out their own inquires.

Kontorovich said the court has only operated for a dozen years and that there has not been enough case law to predict what may happen next.

William Booth is The Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief. He was previously bureau chief in Mexico, Los Angeles and Miami.



Riad Malki and Palestinian delegation leaving the ICC last August. Photo by Reuters.

Palestinians join ICC in politically charged move

By John Reed in Jerusalem, Financial Times
April 01, 2015

The Palestinians joined the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Wednesday, in a politically charged move that will open both Israeli and Palestinian officials to possible future war crimes prosecutions.

Riad Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, led a delegation to a ceremony at the headquarters of the ICC, which is responsible for trying people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The Palestinians are describing ICC membership as a milestone in their drive for international recognition and campaign to make Israel answerable for alleged crimes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which it has occupied since 1967, and the Gaza Strip, from which it withdrew in 2005, but where it keeps a land, sea and air blockade. Palestine was recognised as a non-observer member state of the UN in 2012 and is recognised bilaterally by more than 100 countries.

The Palestinians are hoping that the ICC will investigate Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and its military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in July and August 2014, which killed about 2,200 Palestinians, many of whom were civilians.
“This means that the impunity Israel has had for 67 years is over, and it will face accountability in front of international law,” said Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political movement. “It’s a declaration that the Palestinian state is subject to the rules of international law, and Israel is subject as well, as the occupying force of the Palestinian land.”


Apartheid and genocide are crimes against international law. Protest last summer in the Philippines.

Article 7 of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, provides for prosecution of the crime of apartheid, which the Palestinians believe applies to the Israeli occupation. Article 8 prohibits the transfer of a country’s civilian population into occupied territory, which they say is applicable to Israel’s expansion of Jewish settlements where more than half a million Israelis live.

Palestinian officials have also hinted they may seek to have Israel prosecuted for its destruction of family homes of people accused of terrorism offences, a form of collective punishment Israel has used in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past year.

On January 1, a day before applying to join the ICC, the court accepted its jurisdiction stretching back to June 13 2014, a day after the kidnapping by Palestinians of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank that set off a chain of events leading to last summer’s Gaza war.
Palestinian officials have hinted that they might seek prosecution of some of Israel’s most senior civilian or military leaders. “We want the ones responsible for the most serious crimes,” a foreign ministry official told foreign journalists at a briefing earlier this week in Ramallah. “That gives you an indication of how high we want to go.”

The ICC, which since its founding in 2002 has indicted individuals only in Africa, faces pressure from member states to widen its geographical remit and raise its profile. A prosecution involving the Palestinian territories would almost certainly do so.

However, ICC membership is a risky move for the Palestinians when their finances are threadbare and their internal politics are in disarray because of a stalled reconciliation process between the West Bank’s ruling Fatah movement and Gaza-based Hamas.

Their decision to join the ICC was criticised by the US, which is not a member, and brought an angry response from the Israelis, who in January froze tax and customs funds it collects for them in retaliation for the move, releasing some of the funds only last week.

Members of Hamas and other militant organisations responsible for civilian deaths could also potentially be indicted by the court. A group of US citizens said this week that they planned to file a complaint with the Department of Justice against Hamas for firing missiles at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport during the Gaza war last summer.

The Palestinians say they are prepared for this possibility. The decision to join the ICC was made in consultation “with all political factions and through a national consensus”, the foreign ministry official told reporters earlier this week.

Some $400m of US financial assistance to the Palestinians could be cut off under a US law that allows aid to be terminated if the Palestinians initiate or “actively support” an ICC investigation. However, the law allows the US secretary of state to waive the restriction for national security reasons if he decides that continuing aid “would assist further in Middle East peace”.

The Palestinians have not yet filed any complaints with the court, which began its own preliminary investigation of potential crimes on January 16, after they applied for ICC membership and lodged a declaration accepting the court’s jurisdiction.

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that the Palestinians were still preparing complaints related to the settlements and Israel’s last military operation in Gaza.


Gazans hope ICC will make ‘Israel pay’

By AFP / Ma’an news
April 01, 2015

GAZA CITY — Holding Israel accountable. This is what Yasser al-Qassas and thousands of Gazans hope to see with the Palestinian accession to the International Criminal Court on Wednesday.

Palestine joined the ICC with the goal of trying Israeli leaders for alleged war crimes in the fighting in and around the Gaza Strip in summer 2014, and alleged crimes relating to the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Qassas is one of the many Palestinians who lost family members during the July-August war, waged by Israel to end rocket attacks at its territory and destroy attack tunnels from Gaza.

Approximately 2,200 Palestinians were killed, of them 1,500 civilians, according to a recent United Nations report.

On the Israeli side 73 people were killed, of them 67 soldiers.

A July 21 air strike on a five-story building west of Gaza City demolished Qassas’s home, the unemployed 40-year-old recalled.

“Israel killed my pregnant wife and four of my daughters, in addition to five other family members, and it should pay for this at the ICC,” he told AFP.

The Palestinians have formed a committee to oversee cases to lodge with the ICC as part of a “national effort” to end Israeli “impunity,” including a Gaza committee and another for settlements.

Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat will oversee the mechanism, which includes various figures from the Palestinian political scene, universities and human rights organizations, an official said.

Demand for justice

This effort relies heavily on organizations that defend Palestinian rights and collect incriminating evidence.

Qassas approached several of them.

Ahed Bakr, for his part, went to Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza to file a complaint against Israel after a strike that killed his son, grandson and nephews as they played on the beach in Gaza City, as witnessed by journalists on July 16.

“I demand the president (Mahmoud Abbas) files our case against the terrorist Israel with the ICC to get justice for our children,” the 55-year-old fisherman told AFP.

“Israel killed our children on purpose, it wasn’t just one rocket, but four,” he said. “The whole world saw this live.”

“I will never rest until I see Israeli leaders behind bars,” he added.

The Israeli army is holding its own investigations, with approximately 80 currently open.


Above, the shelling of the Shujaiyeh district was the most comprehensive and devastating of the IDF and IAF attacks. No-one who had not managed to escape in advance could have been expected to survive this. Photo by Alessio Romenzi. Below, Gaza’s only power plant destroyed after its fuel tanks burst into flames after an IAF attack, July 29, 2014, in the south of Gaza City. The intended consequence of this attack were? . Photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP/Getty Images

Among the cases are the shelling of a UN school on July 24 that medics said killed at least 15 people, and the July 16 bombing of a beach where the four children died.

The arm probes standard “should meet that of any others,” said Major General Dan Efrony, the Israeli military’s top adviser.

In the face of Palestinian legal charges, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Israel’s army “the most moral in the world”.

Israel vs Hamas

To Israel’s mind, Hamas — the Islamist movement which rules Gaza — is guilty of war crimes for launching rockets at Israeli civilians and using Palestinians as human shields.

In a recent report, Amnesty International accused Palestinian armed groups of war crimes for indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks that killed civilians in both Israel and Gaza.

In earlier reports the rights group also accused Israel of war crimes.

Palestinians do not consider Israeli investigations credible.

“We have documented hundreds of cases in which Israelis are liable to prosecution for war crimes,” Issam Younis, director of Al Mezan in Gaza, told AFP.

Younis, a member of the ICC committee, said the aim of joining up was to bring accountability to “a state that thinks it’s above the law.”

Among the cases brought before Al Mezan were the July 12 bombing that hit a center for the handicapped in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

Ola Washahi, 30, and Suha Abu Saada, 47, who had severe physical and mental disabilities, were killed in the strike, which demolished the facility.

Its director Jamila Alaywa turned to Al Mezan.

“We demand justice, even if it takes years at the court,” she said. “We are not in a hurry.”



Palestine officially joins International Criminal Court

Palestine has formally become a member of the International Criminal Court. One of
Palestinian leaders’ first steps was to authorize the body to investigate possible war crimes committed in Gaza.

By DW
April 01, 2015

The Palestinian Authority officially became the 123rd member of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday, exactly 90 days after signing the body’s founding document, the Rome Statute. In a low-key ceremony marking the high-stakes move in The Hague, Palestine can now call for the ICC to investigate Israelis for alleged war crimes.

Joining the ICC is part of a wider effort on Palestinians’ part to put international pressure on Israel after decades of failed negotiations have left it largely without the prospect of achieving statehood.

Despite Israel not being a signatory to the Rome Statute, the ICC could prosecute alleged crimes that took place on Palestinian territory. This would mean, however, that the activities of Hamas militants would also be part of the investigation.

Preliminary investigation opened

After signing the Rome Statute in January, Palestine accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction dating back to the start of the Gaza conflict last June. The Palestinian Authority had already sent the court files pertaining to the Gaza war, following which the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, opened a preliminary investigation.

A spokeswoman for the ICC said there “no timelines” for how long an investigation may take. Some have taken months while others continue years after they started.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the accession of Palestine to the ICC, and emphasized that it is now Bensouda’s responsibility to determine if the allegations merit a full-scale investigation.

“The ICC prosecutor examines allegations of serious crimes no matter the perpetrator, and makes her own determinations about how to proceed based on the evidence,” the group said.

Prosecution challenges

William R. Pace, convenor of the Coalition for the ICC, which supports and promotes the court’s work, said Palestinian membership “gives hope to victims in both Palestine and Israel that they might see justice done and the conflict brought to a peaceful end.”

The ICC would find it difficult to arrest Israelis, however, as it does not have its own police force and relies on the cooperation of member states.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki was optimistic, however, saying that the world was “a step closer to ending a long era of impunity and injustice.”

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