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  1. #1
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    ICC opens investigation into war crimes in Palestinian territories

    Naturally the blue suede shoes are having a cow.

    The international criminal court has launched an investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories, including the period covered by the 2014 Gaza war, potentially placing hundreds of Israelis – including soldiers and senior political figures – at risk of prosecution.

    The long-awaited inquiry, which has been fiercely resisted by Israel, follows years of deliberations over whether the ICC has jurisdiction to investigate and is expected to investigate alleged crimes committed by both Israelis and Palestinians.

    Announcing the investigation, the chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said the court would look into “crimes within the jurisdiction of the court that are alleged to have been committed” since 13 June 2014.

    The Gambian lawyer added that the investigation would be conducted “independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favor”. If the investigation identifies suspects allegedly responsible for crimes, prosecutors can ask judges to issue international arrest warrants, which can remain under seal to help authorities apprehend those charged.

    The move, which Palestinians and human rights groups said was long overdue, was immediately condemned by the Israeli foreign minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, as “morally and legally bankrupt”.


    The Israeli prime minister,
    Benjamin Netanyahu, added: “The decision of the international court to open an investigation against Israel today for war crimes is absurd. It’s undiluted antisemitism and the height of hypocrisy.”


    In a videotaped statement, Netanyahu added: “The state of Israel is under attack this evening.


    “The ICC, which was established to prevent a repeat of the horrors the Nazis instigated against the Jewish people, now turns against the state of the Jewish people. Of course it doesn’t say a word against Iran and Syria, and other tyrannical regimes, frequently committing real war crimes,” he said.


    The announcement follows a 2019 decision that there was “reasonable basis” for a war crimes probe, and a ruling on 5 February that the court’s
    jurisdiction extends to territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 six-day war. That ruling prompted swift rejection from Jerusalem, with Netanyahu condemning the judges’ decision as “pure antisemitism”. Joe Biden’s administration said it disagreed with ICC action against Israel; however, the US is not a party to the ICC.


    While some Israeli officials have long feared that an ICC investigation was inevitable, the decision sets the stage for one of the court’s most controversial cases.

    The probe is expected to cover the 2014 Gaza war, the 2018 Gaza border clashes and Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank. The inquiry will also look at whether rocket fire by Hamas and other groups from Gaza amounts to war crimes.

    “The decision to open an investigation followed a painstaking preliminary examination undertaken by my office that lasted close to five years,” Bensouda said in a statement.


    “In the end, our central concern must be for the victims of crimes – both Palestinian and Israel – arising from the long cycle of violence and insecurity that has caused deep suffering and despair on all sides,” she added.


    “My office will take the same principled, non-partisan approach that it has adopted in all situations over which its jurisdiction is seized.”


    As an international court of last resort, the ICC is only empowered to examine cases where it is complained that local jurisdictions have not taken action. While Israel is not a party to the ICC, the Palestinian Authority was accepted after it was ruled that it fulfilled the functions of a state.


    The Palestinian Authority welcomed Wednesday’s move. “This long-awaited step serves Palestine’s vigorous effort to achieve justice and accountability as indispensable bases for peace,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said. It called for concluding the investigation quickly because “the crimes committed by the occupation’s leaders against the Palestinian people are lasting, systematic and far-reaching”.

    The Palestinians joined the court in 2015 and have long pushed for an investigation.
    In the past, Israeli officials have accused the court of overstepping its bounds, saying the Palestinians are not an independent sovereign state.

    Responding to the announcement, the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, described it as “scandalous.”


    “We will not accept claims against the exercise of our right and our obligation to defend our citizens. The state of Israel is a strong, Jewish and democratic state which knows how to defend itself and to investigate itself when necessary.


    “We are proud of our soldiers, our sons and daughters, the essence of our people, who stand guard for their country generation after generation, a defensive wall against all those who seek our harm.”


    The investigation will probably also look into alleged crimes by Palestinian militants. Bensouda has said her probe would examine the actions of Hamas, which fired rockets into Israel during the 2014 war.


    Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, told Reuters: “We welcome the ICC decision to investigate Israeli occupation war crimes against our people. It is a step forward on the path of achieving justice for the victims of our people.


    “Our resistance is legitimate, and it comes to defend our people. All international laws approve legitimate resistance,” said Qassem.


    Israel blames Hamas and other militant groups for Palestinian war casualties, saying the militants use residential areas as cover to launch rockets and leave the military no choice but to strike back.


    Bensouda said that priorities in the investigation would be “determined in due time” based on constraints including the coronavirus pandemic, limited resources and prosecutors’ existing heavy workload.
    https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021...imes-palestine

  2. #2
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    Statement : 3 March 2021

    Statement of ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, respecting an investigation of the Situation in Palestine

    Today, I confirm the initiation by the Office of the Prosecutor (''Office'') of the International Criminal Court (''ICC'' or the ''Court'') of an investigation respecting the Situation in Palestine. The investigation will cover crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court that are alleged to have been committed in the Situation since 13 June 2014, the date to which reference is made in the Referral of the Situation to my Office.

    How the Office will set priorities concerning the investigation will be determined in due time, in light of the operational challenges we confront from the pandemic, the limited resources we have available to us, and our current heavy workload. Such challenges, however, as daunting and complex as they are, cannot divert us from ultimately discharging the responsibilities that the Rome Statute places upon the Office.

    Under the Rome Statute, where a State Party has referred a situation to the Office of the Prosecutor and it is determined that a reasonable basis exists to commence an investigation, the Office is obliged to act. As a first step, the Office is required to notify all States Parties and those States which would normally exercise jurisdiction over the crimes concerned about its investigation. This permits any such State to request the Office to defer to the State's relevant investigation of its own nationals or others within its jurisdiction in relation to Rome Statute crimes referred to in the notification (subject to possible Pre-Trial Chamber review).
    Read more
    Statement of ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, respecting an investigation of the Situation in Palestine


    The US State Department revoked Bensouda's visa in early April 2019.[26][27] The Guardian reported that the visa withdrawal seemed to be the fulfillment of a threat from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to prevent ICC personnel from investigating whether US servicemen or US officials engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania.[28][29][30] The visa revocation triggered criticism from United Nations officials.[31]

    In June 2020, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order which allowed the United States to block the assets of ICC employees and prevent them from entering the country. In September 2020, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Bensouda and another senior ICC official, Phakiso Mochochoko, would be sanctioned under this order and those who "materially support those individuals risk exposure to sanctions as well". Balkees Jarrah, senior counsel at Human Rights Watch, tweeted that the move was a "stunning perversion of US sanctions, devised to penalize rights abusers and kleptocrats, to target those prosecuting war crimes".[32]
    Fatou Bensouda - Wikipedia

  3. #3
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    The US State dept is a sick joke. I reckon they should be hauled before the ICC too- although of course, they would refuse to go.



    ‘Where do Palestinians go for accountability?’ AP asks a dozen times as State Dep’t flounders

    US policy denying Palestinians any avenue of redress against Israeli violations is a public joke, as Matt Lee grills State Spox Ned Price, "Where do they go?"

    The International Criminal Court’s decision to investigate war crimes in Palestine continues to stir things up. Israel and its lobby are incensed by the move, and yesterday Vice President Kamala Harris had a call with her friend Benjamin Netanyahu and the two agreed on their opposition to ICC jurisdiction “over Israeli personnel.”

    The jurisdiction issue was central to State Department spokesperson Ned Price’s rejection of the ICC case
    when asked on Wednesday. “The Palestinians do not qualify as a sovereign state.”

    But Matt Lee of AP wouldn’t let the question go, demanding 12 times, Where do they go. And all the State Department spokesperson could do is talk about the two state solution and the Jewish state.

    Full Article- ‘Where do Palestinians go for accountability?’ AP asks a dozen times as State Dep’t flounders – Mondoweiss


  4. #4
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    Israel seizes Palestinian foreign minister’s travel permit after visit to International Criminal Court over war crimes probe
    21 Mar, 2021

    Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyad al-Maliki, who was returning to the West Bank from a meeting at the International Criminal Court (ICC), was held up at a border crossing and got his VIP travel permit revoked by Israel.

    Senior Palestinian official, Ahmed al-Deek, said that agents of Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence service have questioned al-Maliki for around 30 minutes at the Allenby crossing from Jordan into the West Bank on Sunday. Members of the FM’s entourage were questioned for around an hour, he added.

    Al-Maliki’s special travel permit has been revoked and he left the border crossing without it. The VIP pass allows top Palestinian officials to move freely through the Israeli-operated checkpoints. It was unclear if the FM will be getting the papers back, al-Deek added.

    An Israeli official has confirmed the development to the Times of Israel, but declined to name the reason for the cancellation of the minister’s pass. However, al-Deek insisted that the move by the Israeli authorities was retaliation for Maliki’s visit to the ICC in The Hague earlier this week.

    “Israel is unable to solve cases through the law, but instead resorts to a policy of intimidation, sanctions and threats,” he told Palestinian WAFA news agency.

    Al-Maliki, who was on European tour, met with ICC lead prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on Thursday. Earlier this month, Bensouda announced a probe into war crimes carried out in the Palestinian Territories since June 13, 2014.

    According to al-Maliki’s office, he spoke to the prosecutor about “the importance of expediting investigations into the crimes committed in the territory of the State of Palestine, in a manner that ensures justice for the victims and their families among the Palestinian people.”

    On Friday, Israeli and Palestinian administrations both received notifications from the ICC of the opening of a war crimes probe against them.

    While welcomed by the Palestinians, the investigation has angered the Israeli authorities, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeling it “the epitome of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy.”

    Israel seizes Palestinian foreign minister’s travel permit after visit to International Criminal Court over war crimes probe — RT World News

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