Palestinian rights groups file 700-page dossier to ICC on Israeli apartheid and other human rights violations - DETAILS

Mike Corder
AP
Wed, 20 Sep 2017 18:34 UTC

© Ammar Awad / Reuters

Palestinian human rights lawyers and activists on Wednesday handed a 700-page dossier to the International Criminal Court alleging that Israeli authorities are responsible for crimes including apartheid and persecution in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The documents are an attempt to provide evidence for an ongoing preliminary probe opened in 2015 by prosecutors at the global court into crimes committed on Palestinian territories.

The so-called preliminary examination aims to establish if there are sufficient grounds for opening a full-scale investigation into alleged crimes by Israel, but also by Palestinians, during and since the 2014 Gaza conflict.

Shawan Jabarin, director of Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, said in a statement that the dossier includes evidence that Israel forcibly removes Palestinians from the territories and replaces them with Israeli settlers.

"The communication to the International Criminal Court offers hope that anybody that commits crimes against Palestinians will be held to account," Jabarin said. "We are convinced that there can be no lasting and genuine peace without justice."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry was studying the submission and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, called the transfer of Israeli settlers into occupied Palestinian territory, "a unique war crime in that it is coupled with the confiscation of massive tracts of Palestinian land, the extensive destruction of Palestinian property, and the tearing apart of the Palestinian social fabric and way of life."

Under the court's founding treaty, the Rome Statute, anybody can send prosecutors details of alleged crimes, but that does not mean the court will open a full investigation. It is unclear how long the preliminary examination of the Palestinian allegations will take.

In a written comment emailed to The Associated Press, the court's prosecution office said it will "analyze the materials submitted, as appropriate, in accordance with the Rome Statute and with full independence and impartiality."

Comment: How long will the "preliminary examination" last? Seeing as how Israel has gotten away with murder for 70 years or so, we'd guess at least another 70.

Ali Abunimah at Electronic Intifada has more background on the report, and the types of crimes that justify an investigation by the ICC:

Death threats and harassment

Kiswanson and other human rights investigators affiliated with Al-Haq have been the targets of a long-running campaign of harassment and death threats that a veteran Israeli analyst has tied to Israeli government "black ops."

Al-Haq believes the threats are tied to Kiswanson's work preparing the dossiers for the international court. The government of the Netherlands, where the court is based, has said that a criminal investigation has been opened into the threats.

"Israeli Jewish domination"

According to a statement from Al-Haq, the latest file "addresses Israel's endeavor to enlarge its territory and ensure Israeli Jewish domination therein by altering the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territory."

Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, said that Israel's transfer of settlers into occupied Palestinian land "constitutes a unique war crime in that is coupled with the confiscation of massive tracts of Palestinian land, the extensive destruction of Palestinian property and the tearing apart of the Palestinian social fabric and way of life."

Although Israel's violations in the occupied West Bank can be looked at separately from those in Gaza, Issam Younis, director of the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, explained how they are linked: "The isolation of Gaza, in addition to the regular, full-scale military assaults, ultimately enables Israel to consolidate its control over the whole occupied Palestinian territory and deny Palestinians their internationally recognized right to self-determination." ...

Sham self-investigations

Last month, two human rights groups concluded that Israel's own system for investigating alleged crimes against Palestinians by its forces is a sham.

Hundreds of cases, including the notorious killings of four boys playing football on a beach in July 2014, have not resulted in any accountability for the perpetrators.

In May 2016, B'Tselem announced it would no longer cooperate with Israeli military investigations of killings and other attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

"We will no longer aid a system that whitewashes investigations and serves as a fig leaf for the occupation," the Israeli human rights group's director explained.

When it comes to crimes like apartheid and settler colonization, Israel would obviously do nothing to investigate and punish itself - since these crimes are planned and executed by the state itself.

But even in situations where Israel recognizes - at least on paper - that a certain act is a crime, there has been zero accountability.

This should be an important factor in the prosecutors' decisions because according to its founding statute, the International Criminal Court only steps in when national judicial authorities are unwilling or unable to carry out genuine proceedings.

Villages face destruction

Whether the court acts is not just a matter of accounting for the past, but of stopping ongoing crimes.

This month, B'Tselem warned top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister Avigdor Lieberman and the military chief of staff, that they would be personally liable for war crimes if they proceed with the apparently imminent destruction of Khan al-Ahmar and Susiya, two communities in the West Bank.

"The demolition of entire communities in the occupied territories is virtually unprecedented since 1967," B'Tselem said.

Robert Piper, the top UN humanitarian aid official in Palestine, tweeted, "All eyes on the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar at risk of forcible transfers by Israeli authorities over the coming days."

He inadvertently identified a problem in which the UN plays a major part: the so-called international community stands on the sidelines and just watches as Israel commits crimes daily.

For more on the situation in Palestine, see our interview with Robert Fantina on Behind the Headlines: The Truth About Israel and Palestine.