JERUSALEM (AP) – The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday launched an investigation into alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories, turning the court’s focus to Israeli military action and building settlements on lands captured in the Palestinian war. Middle East 1967.
The decision was an embarrassing blow to the Israeli government, which had launched an aggressive back-to-back public relations and diplomatic campaign to block the investigation. He also raised the possibility of arrest warrants being issued against Israeli officers suspected of war crimes, which would pose a risk to travel abroad.
“The state of Israel is under attack this evening,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video-recorded statement. “The biased international park in The Hague made a decision that is the essence of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy.”
“I promise you we will fight for the truth until we overturn this outrageous decision,” he said.
The decision of Fatou Bensouda, the outgoing prosecutor in the court, had been awaited as the court determined last month that it had jurisdiction over the case. A preliminary investigation by Bensouda in 2019 had found a “reasonable basis” for opening a war crimes case.
In a statement, Bensouda said the investigation will examine “crimes within the jurisdiction of the court that are supposed to have been committed” since June 13, 2014. He said the investigation will be conducted “independently,” impartial and objective, without fear or favor “. This task will now be handed over to Karim Khan, the British lawyer who will become chief prosecutor of the court in June.
Wednesday’s decision turns the court’s attention to two key Israeli policies in recent years: its repeated military operations against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, highlighted by a devastating 2014 war, and its expansion of Jewish settlements in the United States. East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Experts say Israel could be especially vulnerable to lawsuits because of its settlement policies.
Although the Palestinians do not have an independent state, they were granted non-member observer status at the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, which allowed them to join international organizations such as the ICC. . Since joining the court in 2015, they have launched an investigation into war crimes against Israel. Israel, which is not a member of the tribunal, had said it had no jurisdiction because Palestine is not a sovereign state.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers autonomous areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, welcomed the measure on Wednesday.
“This long-awaited step serves Palestine’s vigorous effort to achieve justice and accountability as indispensable foundations for peace,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said.
The Palestinians chose June 2014 as the start of the investigation to coincide with the period leading up to Israel’s devastating war in Gaza that summer.
During the fighting, more than 2,200 Palestinians, including about 1,500 civilians, died as a result of the Israeli fire, according to UN estimates. According to Israeli figures, at least 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side.
Israel has argued that it waged a relentless war of self-defense against the rocket against its cities. He accuses the Hamas Islamic rulers of Gaza, the rulers of Hamas, of the large number of civilian deaths because the group launched attacks from residential areas, provoking Israeli retaliation.
Bensouda has also said his investigation will examine the actions of Hamas, which fired rockets indiscriminately at Israel during the 2014 war.
In Gaza, however, Hamas welcomed the start of the investigation and called on Bensouda to “resist any pressure” that could spread the process.
“This is a step forward in implementing justice, punishing the occupation and doing justice to the Palestinian people,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told the Associated Press. He said he trusted rocket attacks on Israeli cities to be legitimate under international law.
The ICC must serve as a court of last resort when countries’ own judicial systems cannot or do not want to investigate and prosecute war crimes.
Israel does not recognize its authority, saying it has an independent, world-class judicial system. But Palestinians and human rights groups say Israel is unable to investigate and has a history of money laundering.
After the war, the military opened dozens of investigations into the conduct of troops. While there were only a handful of convictions for minor charges, that might be enough for the court, which dropped a similar case. against British troops in Iraq last year because British authorities had investigated.
Referring to Israel’s justice system, Bensouda said the investigation “will allow for a continuous assessment of the actions being taken at the national level in accordance with the principle of complementarity.”
Experts have warned that Israel could have more difficulty defending its settlement policies in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Settlements are considered largely illegal under the principle of the Geneva Convention which imposes on an occupying power the transfer of its population to territories captured at war. Population transfers are listed as a war crime in the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war and considers the West Bank to be a disputed territory. But their positions are not internationally recognized and most of the world considers the two areas to be occupied territories.
Today, some 700,000 settlers live in both areas, which the Palestinians are demanding, along with Gaza, for a future state. Israel says the fate of these areas should be resolved in the negotiations and that the participation of the ICC will remove the Palestinians from the negotiating table.
Bensouda said the priorities of the investigation will be “determined in time” based on constraints such as the coronavirus pandemic, limited resources and the existing heavy workload of prosecutors.
While Wednesday’s decision poses no immediate threat to Israel, the court has the authority to silently issue arrest warrants for people suspected of crimes.
Netanyahu was prime minister during the 2014 Gaza war and has been a staunch supporter of settlements. His defense minister, Benny Gantz, was Israel’s military commander during the war. Israeli media have said that Israel is in contact with allied members of the ICC to receive warnings about possible arrest warrants against its citizens.
In his statement, Netanyahu said Israel was being unfairly distinguished. He accused the court of “turning a blind eye to Iran, Syria and the rest of the dictatorships that are committing real war crimes.”
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said “we strongly oppose and are disappointed by the ICC prosecutor’s announcement of an investigation into the Palestinian situation.”
“We will continue to maintain our firm commitment to Israel and its security, including opposing actions that try to lead Israel unfairly,” Price told the press in Washington.
International human rights groups praised the decision as a step towards justice for Israeli and Palestinian victims.
“The agglomerated court record should not deter the prosecution from perseveringly prosecuting cases against anyone who is credibly involved in these crimes,” said Balkees Jarrah, associate director of international justice at Human Rights Watch.
“ICC member countries should be prepared to fiercely protect the work of the court from any political pressure,” he said.
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Corder reported from The Hague, the Netherlands. Akram Fares in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed.