ICC paves the way for the investigation of Israeli crimes

Days of Palestine
Sat, 06 Feb 2021 02:32 UTC

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International Criminal Court • The Hague • Netherlands

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Friday issued a decision extending its jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

This came within the framework of the approval of the court (based in The Hague) to investigate possible war crimes, which said that "Israel has committed them," according to what was quoted by the American ABC News Network.

"The International Criminal Court agrees to investigate possible war crimes by Israel in the Palestinian territories, and it determines that its jurisdiction extends to the territories controlled by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967," the text of the decision stated. This decision paves the way for the opening of the court to investigate war crimes resulting from Israeli military actions.

In turn, the Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh welcomed the decision issued by the International Criminal Court with the majority of its members, according to which it affirmed its jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, including the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and that Palestine is a member of the Rome Statute.

Shtayyeh considered the decision a victory for justice and humanity, for the values ​​of truth, justice, and freedom, and fairness for the blood of the victims and their families who are suffering the pain of their loss, the last of whom was the martyr Khaled Nofal from the village of Ras Karkar, west of Ramallah, who was killed in cold blood by settler bullets.

Shtayyeh said that the decision is a message to the perpetrators of crimes, that their crimes will not be subject to a statute of limitations, and that they will not go unpunished, usually as a victory for the same court that thwarted Israel's attempts to politicalize its crimes.

Shtayyeh stressed that the Palestinian government continues to document the ongoing Israeli crimes against Palestinian people, especially murders, house demolitions, land seizures, and settlement expansion, as happened in "Khirbet Homs" and other lands threatened by settlement, which violates international law and resolutions of international legitimacy in particular Security Council Resolution No. 2334, and that it will be referred to the court as soon as possible.

He called on the court to speed up its judicial procedures in the files brought it, which include the crimes committed by "Israel" during its three wars on the Gaza Strip, in addition to the prisoners' and settlement files.

Comment: Israel's insatiable destruction machine rolls on:

A weekly report, issued by the National Bureau for Land Defense and Resistance to Settlement, said that the "Ainoun Nature Reserve", east of Tubas, was this time the direct target of the Israeli occupation forces.

In a new crime, the Israeli occupation uprooted and destroyed about 10 thousand forest trees, in addition to 300 olives trees, which were planted eight years ago, as part of the Palestine Greening Program with the support of the Brazilian Consulate in Palestine, in an area extending over an area of ​​400 dunams.

The report emphasized that the Israeli occupation sprayed the places of uprooted forest trees with pesticides, lest they grow again with the aim of using them as open military training yards.

Israeli occupation authorities stormed "Khirbet al-Maita", which is affiliated with "Wadi al-Malih", and delivered 20 notices to stop construction in a large number of homes and facilities, which include tents and livestock sheds for 19 Palestinian families - and they dismantled 8 stockyards for livestock in the "Burj area" in the northern Jordan Valley for five families, claiming that they were in nature reserves, and demolished a residential tent and a sheep pen, and seized them.

Who does he think he's fooling? Netanyahu targets the ICC (established to prevent atrocities such as the Holocaust) and yes, he plays the anti-Semitism card:

Israel is not a member of the ICC and neither is the US. Palestinians joined the court in 2015. The ICC is meant to serve as a court of last resort when countries' own judicial systems are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute war crimes. Israel is capable, but not willing. The ICC doesn't try countries, but rather individuals.

The case now returns to CC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, to decide whether she will move forward with a criminal investigation.