JFJFP

January 4, 2015

News

Sarah Benton

Something for the ICC? Local boys examine a car damaged during the demolition of Abed Abdelrahman Shaludeh’s home in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan to make way for a new settlement.Photo by Reuters.

Palestine’s ICC bid could mark turning point

If court accepts Palestine’s application, prosecutor could open investigation into war crimes and genocide by any party.

By Benjamin Durr, Al Jazeera

January 03, 2015

The Hague – Palestine’s bid to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) could mark a turning point in the Middle East conflict, as the war crimes court could prosecute both Israelis and Palestinians.

This week, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas signed papers requesting membership in the Hague-based court, and the Palestinian ambassador to the UN formally submitted the application to the UN secretary-general on Friday. It will take a minimum of 60 days for the request to come into effect. The move comes just days after the UN Security Council rejected a resolution that would have set a deadline for Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories.

If the court accepts the application, the ICC prosecutor could open an investigation into war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed on Palestinian territories by any party. “The ICC would have jurisdiction to prosecute both Israelis and the Palestinians,” Eugene Kontorovich, a professor of international law at Northwestern University in Chicago and an expert on the conflict, told Al Jazeera.

If the ICC decides to step in, crimes by both sides are likely to come under scrutiny, Kontorovich said. Hamas has been accused of indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians and firing rockets from civilian areas, while Israel could be prosecuted for its settlements and the offensive in Gaza this summer, legal experts say.

In a report, Amnesty International documented attacks by Israeli forces, saying they amounted to war crimes. The attacks took place during Operation Protective Edge in July and August.

Since ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda can only investigate crimes that take place after Palestine has ratified the court’s founding treaty, she would not have a legal basis for the prosecution of incidents related to Operation Protective Edge. However, Palestine could decide to give the court the power to cover events in the past, including Israel’s conduct in Gaza in 2014, international relations scholar David Bosco argues. Abbas has reportedly asked the court to investigate crimes that took place on Palestinian soil after June 13, 2014.

The ICC can only prosecute persons, not states, organisations or other entities. However, Palestine cannot choose which individuals the prosecutor goes after, nor could it avoid the prosecution of Hamas or Fatah members, Bosco noted.

Before the prosecutor’s office in The Hague can open an investigation, Palestine likely has to ratify the Rome Statute – the court’s founding treaty. The ICC, too, has to accept the membership. In 2012, the prosecutor rejected an application, arguing it was unclear whether Palestine was a state. However, its status was since upgraded by the UN General Assembly and more recently by other ICC member states, making it likely the court will accept Palestine’s bid this time.

As a member of the ICC, Palestine could invite the court to investigate crimes committed on its territory, while the prosecutor could also request an investigation on her own. However, “so far the ICC has tried only middle-ranking rebel leaders from Africa”, Kontorovich said, noting the court might lack the experience and the teeth to go after prominent Israeli and Palestinian suspects.

An Israel-Palestine case would not be an easy one for the court, which has previously experienced difficulties in investigating politically controversial cases. In December, the prosecutor had to drop charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Eight days later, she announced a halt to investigations in Darfur after failing to get the necessary support from the Security Council and the international community.

The ICC does not have its own police force, instead relying on states’ cooperation to arrest suspects and carry out court decisions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already indicated Israel would protect its soldiers from prosecution, saying the Israeli army is “the most moral army in the world”.

“The ICC moves slowly, so one cannot expect immediate action on the part of the ICC in response to Palestine’s joining the ICC,” John Dugard, the former special rapporteur to the UN commission on the human rights situation in Palestine and a professor of international law, told Al Jazeera.

But the political implications of the Palestinian action are serious, he added. Firstly, it raises the possibility of the prosecution of Israeli and Palestinian leaders for war crimes. “The Israel Defense Forces portrays itself as the most moral army in the world. This will now be brought into question,” Dugard said.

Secondly, Israeli settlements could come under scrutiny: “If Israelis are summoned by the ICC, the West will have to come to terms with the fact that Israel is a criminal state and withdraw its protection.”

Israel freezes Palestinian funds in response to ICC bid

Jerusalem withholds transfer of NIS 500 million in taxes in response to Abbas; Palestinian official calls move ‘Israeli piracy’

By Times of Israel staff

January 03, 2015

Israel on Saturday froze NIS 500 million ($127 million) in Palestinian tax revenues collected on Ramallah’s behalf, in response to the Palestinian Authority filing a request to join the International Criminal Court earlier this week.

The decision was apparently made during a meeting convened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to discuss Israeli responses to the unilateral move by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, an unnamed senior Israeli official told Channel 10.

The frozen funds are Palestinian taxes collected by Israel which were intended to be transferred to the PA’s coffers on Friday. Israel has threatened retaliation against the Palestinians should they move to join the court, and Washington condemned the move as a hindrance to efforts at reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

“The funds for the month of December were supposed to be transferred on Friday, but it was decided to stop it as part of the response to the Palestinian move,” a senior Israeli official told Haaretz.

A senior Palestinian official responded to the move, calling it “Israeli piracy,” Ynet reported. Another senior PA official told The Times of Israel that the decision was a war crime. He said that the act will become the first complaint the Palestinians will present at the ICC, and that the PA has no intention of backing down from its intention to join the court.

Center-left party leaders panned the Netanyahu government’s move, saying it would only harm Israel’s interests. Labor-Hatnua party chiefs Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog issued a statement saying that “Netanyahu has no other solution to Israel’s deteriorating situation in the world [arena].”

The move was reported shortly after an Israeli official told Reuters on Saturday that Israel was “weighing the possibilities for large-scale prosecution in the United States and elsewhere” of Abbas and other top Palestinian officials.

The PA submitted documents to the United Nations on Friday to join the International Criminal Court after Abbas signed the Rome Statute and 19 other international treaties on Wednesday. The Palestinians moved to join the court after suffering a defeat in the UN Security Council earlier in the week, which rejected a resolution that called on Israel to pull out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem within three years.

On Thursday, Abbas asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for war crimes allegedly committed during the 50-day war with Hamas and other Gaza terror groups last summer.

The Israeli official added that Palestinian leaders “ought to fear legal steps” as a response to their move toward ICC membership.

“(Hamas) … commits war crimes, shooting at civilians from civilian populated areas,” the official said, in reference to the 50-day conflict Israel fought with Hamas and other terror groups in and around Gaza.

Israel lost 66 soldiers and six civilians, and a Thai agricultural worker, in the month-long conflict, while the Palestinian death toll surpassed 2,100, according to Hamas officials in Gaza. Israel said half of the Gaza dead were gunmen and blamed Hamas for all civilian deaths because it operated from residential areas, placing Gazans in harm’s way.

A second official told the news agency that Israel may push these cases via non-governmental organizations and pro-Israel legal groups who can file lawsuits abroad.

France to Israel: We backed Palestinians in Security Council to prevent ICC bid

Israeli diplomat meets French ambassador, conveys Israel’s deep disappointment with France’s vote in Security Council; French envoy says Paris wanted to encourage sides to return to negotiating table.

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz

January 02, 2015

This United Nations photo shows the UN Security Council during a meeting to adopt a resolution on Palestinian statehood on December 30, 2014 in New York. Photo by AFP

French ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave reported to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on Friday after being summoned over his country’s vote in favor of the Palestinian statehood resolution at the UN Security Council earlier this week. French officials told Haaretz that Maisonnave clarified in the meeting that France voted for the resolution in order to try and prevent the Palestinians from pursuing other unilateral steps such as joining the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said that the ministry’s deputy director-general for Western Europe, Aviv Shir-On, told the French ambassador that Israel was deeply disappointed by France’s stance and its vote in the UNSC. “The only way to reach progress with the Palestinians is through direct negotiations, not through unilateral announcements or a unilateral policy,” Shir-On said at the meeting.

During the meeting, the French ambassador said that the international community is of one mind over the need to break the diplomatic stalemate and the dangerous status quo. According to him, France voted as it did in order to encourage the sides back to the negotiating table.

Maisonnave also said that France disagreed with several parts in the Palestinian resolution and therefore tried to formulate its own draft.

He noted that the vote was not aimed against Israel, but an effort to prevent further unilateral steps that would strengthen extremists on both sides. “That’s exactly what happened after the Security Council rejected the proposal, and the Palestinians went to The Hague,” the French ambassador said.

He added that France would keep trying to promote its own version of the resolution in the Security Council, presenting principles for the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on all the core issues of the conflict.

“The latest escalation is all the more reason to keep acting,” he emphasized.

The Palestinian proposal calling for peace with Israel within a year and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by late 2017 failed to pass the UNSC vote on Tuesday, after only eight member states voted in its favor, one vote short of the requirement.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has been closely following the deteriorating relations with France, and even held a special meeting on the matter about two weeks ago. A source who took part in the meeting said participants conveyed a sense that France is less attuned to Israel’s positions on the Palestinian matter.

Moreover, over the past three months the Foreign Ministry has identified several incidents in which events, delegations, and planned collaborations with French bodies were canceled in the last minute. Among these were a Paris conference of Israeli and French high-tech companies and a visit by a delegation of French lawyers in Israel.

A senior official said that in each of these cases a different reason was given, and that on the face of it they were unconnected. It is also unclear if the French government was behind the cancellations. However, the overall impression is that of deteriorating relations. “There is a sense that the French are trying to link the progress in the peace process to the promotion of bilateral ties with Israel,” the official said.

In addition to these incidents, there is also the recent vote in the French parliament calling on the government to recognize the Palestinian state.

Israel withholds funds, weighs lawsuits against Palestinians

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Reuters / Daily Mail

January 03, 2015

Israel will withhold critical tax revenue and seek ways to bring war crimes prosecutions against Palestinian leaders in retaliation for Palestinian moves to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), Israeli officials said on Saturday.

On Friday, the Palestinians delivered documents to U.N. headquarters in New York on joining the Rome Statute of the ICC in The Hague and other global treaties with the aim of prosecuting Israelis for what they consider war crimes committed on their territory.

In a first punitive response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided in consultation with senior ministers on Thursday to withhold the next monthly transfer of tax revenue, totalling some 500 million shekels ($125 million), an Israeli official said on Saturday.

The ICC was set up to try war crimes and crimes against humanity such as genocide. Israel and the United States object to unilateral approaches by the Palestinians to world bodies, saying they undermine prospects for negotiating a peaceful settlement of the decades-old Middle East conflict.

The tax revenues are critical to running the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule, and paying public sector salaries. Israel took a similar step in December 2012, freezing revenue transfers for three months in anger at the Palestinians’ launch of a campaign for recognition of statehood at the United Nations.

“This is highway robbery. Not only is this illegal, they are adding money theft to land theft. The revenues belong to the Palestinian people, they go to pay salaries and support our economy. Israel has no business deciding to steal our funds,” senior Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi told Reuters.

Under interim peace deals from the 1990s, Israel collects at least $100 million a month in duties on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

“LARGE-SCALE PROSECUTION”

In addition to the revenue freeze, an Israeli official said Israel was “weighing the possibilities for large-scale prosecution in the United States and elsewhere” of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Palestinian officials.

Israel would probably press these cases via non-governmental groups and pro-Israel legal organisations capable of filing lawsuits abroad, a second Israeli official said.

Israel sees the heads of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank as collaborators with the Islamist militant group Hamas, which dominates Gaza, because of a unity deal they forged in April, the officials said.

Netanyahu had previously warned that unilateral moves by the Palestinian Authority at the United Nations would expose its leaders to prosecution over support for Hamas, viewed by Israel and much of the West as a terrorist organisation.

Hamas “commits war crimes, shooting at civilians from civilian-populated areas”, one official said, referring to the war in Gaza last summer in which more than 2,100 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis died.

Palestinians seek a state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

Momentum to recognise a Palestinian state has been building since Abbas succeeded in a bid for de facto recognition at the U.N. General Assembly in 2012, which made Palestinians eligible to join the ICC.

Abbas opted to join the ICC after losing a motion last week in the U.N. Security Council to set a 2017 deadline for a Palestinian state to be established in land occupied by Israel.

The United States, Israel’s main ally, supports an eventual independent Palestinian state, but has argued against unilateral moves like Friday’s, saying they could damage the peace process.

Washington sends about $400 million in economic support to the Palestinians every year. Under U.S. law, that aid would be cut off if the Palestinians used membership of the ICC to press claims against Israel.

Punish PNA for new power