Palestine's ICC membership should not be bartered away
Analysis: The Palestinian Authority should not waste its membership of the International Criminal Court, as it is an opportunity to win justice for Palestinian victims of Israeli crimes.
5 min read
Membership of the ICC may act as a deterrent against Israeli war crimes [AFP]
On Wednesday 1 April 2015, the Palestinian Authority (PA) formally joined the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The formal accession was marked with a ceremony at the Hague, where the court is based. This makes the PA (or the non-member State of Palestine at the United Nations) the 123rd member of the world's permanent war crimes tribunal, giving the ICC jurisdiction over war crimes committed in Palestinian territories.
Of course Israel and its champion protector, the US (and Canada for some reason), virulently oppose the Palestinian move, with Israel taking hostile measures against the Palestinians - including an increase in the number of arbitrary arrests of Palestinian civilians (including children), accelerating the confiscation of Palestinian land for settlement expansion, and withholding Palestinian tax revenues worth $175 million a month.
All of these are prohibited under international protocols, showing contempt for international law.
The US has also taken not only to using harsh rhetoric, but also to putting in place punitive measures against the Palestinians, such as cutting off financial aid to show it means business.
The day a preliminary inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories was launched on 16 January 2015, acting US State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke stressed: "We strongly disagree with the ICC prosecutor's action today. As we have said repeatedly, we do not believe that Palestine is a state and therefore we do not believe that it is eligible to join the ICC."
The US Congress, always a formidable stronghold for Israel - rightly or wrongly dubbed by former Nixon communications director Pat Buchanan as "Israeli occupied territory" - responded.
"The PA's decision to join the ICC is deplorable, counterproductive, and will be met with a strong response by the United States Congress," read a statement issued by US Senators Mark Kirk, Lindsey Graham, Robert Menendez, Chuck Schumer and Bob Corker.
"Existing US law makes clear that if the Palestinians initiate an ICC judicially authorised investigation, or actively support such an investigation, all economic assistance to the PA must end. In light of this legal requirement, Congress will reassess its support for assistance to the PA and seek additional ways to make clear to the PA's President Mahmoud Abbas that we strongly oppose his efforts to seek membership in the ICC.
"If the ICC makes the egregious mistake of accepting the PA as a member, given that it is not a state, Congress will seek ways to protect Israeli citizens from politically abusive ICC actions."
The senators went on to say that, by joining the ICC, the PA would "take an organisation with laudable goals and undermine its credibility by turning it into a political battering ram against Israel" - something they say it has done to other organisations in the past (in an implicit reference to the United Nations General Assembly resolution equation of Zionism with Racism in 1975, and since rescinded).
Instead, senators urged Abbas: "The PA should end its pact with Islamist terror group Hamas and work towards an enduring, realistic solution to this ongoing conflict with Israel."
Nevermind that, as recently as two weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu disavowed his own 2009 half-hearted utterance accepting a vague concept of the two-state solution.
On the Palestinian side, an understandable flicker of triumphalism.
"I don't understand the opposition unless Netanyahu fears the court and what it might do," PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told reporters. "If he believes his army is the most moral army in the world... then he should not fear our accession to the court."
Conceding that the ICC could potentially pursue Palestinians - primarily Hamas fighters, but also PLO elements - for prosecution as war criminals, Maliki added that the PA would not hesitate to hand over Palestinian suspects if the court asked for them.
Palestine's membership of the ICC is very important for the Palestinian people, and marks a watershed event in their history, US insistence that "Palestine is not a state" notwithstanding.
The fact that ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda referred to "Palestine" in her examination is a huge step forward for the Palestinians. ICC Vice-President Kuniko Ozaki went further:
"Palestine acquires all the rights as well as responsibilities that come with being a State Party to the Statute," she said at the ceremony on April 1.
"These are substantive commitments, which cannot be taken lightly," stressing that the process was not one-sided.
While it is unlikely to get Palestinians the justice they have been denied for so long, it is significant in finally beginning to acknowledge the horrific injustice that has shattered their lives as a result of Israeli occupation of their land for more than sixty years.
We know the ICC will only examine evidence accumulated since June 2014.
There is no chance the Palestinians can show any of the mountain of evidence before that date that reaches back 67 years.
We are also aware the court is swamped with investigations in Africa and prosecutors already struggling to secure convictions. This makes bringing the case of Israeli war crimes in the "Palestinian occupied territories" anytime soon - if ever - a daunting proposition.
But for sure the ICC examination and possible prosecution could potentially begin to peel-off the layers of immunity granted to Israel by the West to continue conducting these very crimes.
Furthermore, no matter how remote, the moral message in ICC membership could - at least in theory - ensure justice for the Palestinian victims of grave Israeli crimes, but would more tangibly act as a deterrent when Israel launches another war against Gaza, for instance, or the next time its soldiers decide to shoot Palestinian teenagers demonstrating peacefully against the apartheid wall in the occupied West Bank.
If Israel announces a new settlement plan, Palestine could lodge an immediate complaint.
That's why the ICC membership and the investigation launched on Wednesday 1 April is of huge significance, and should not be squandered by the PA or bartered away for quick-fix financial aid or cheap political gains.
The formal accession was marked with a ceremony at the Hague, where the court is based. This makes the PA (or the non-member State of Palestine at the United Nations) the 123rd member of the world's permanent war crimes tribunal, giving the ICC jurisdiction over war crimes committed in Palestinian territories.
Of course Israel and its champion protector, the US (and Canada for some reason), virulently oppose the Palestinian move, with Israel taking hostile measures against the Palestinians - including an increase in the number of arbitrary arrests of Palestinian civilians (including children), accelerating the confiscation of Palestinian land for settlement expansion, and withholding Palestinian tax revenues worth $175 million a month.
All of these are prohibited under international protocols, showing contempt for international law.
The US has also taken not only to using harsh rhetoric, but also to putting in place punitive measures against the Palestinians, such as cutting off financial aid to show it means business.
The day a preliminary inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories was launched on 16 January 2015, acting US State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke stressed: "We strongly disagree with the ICC prosecutor's action today. As we have said repeatedly, we do not believe that Palestine is a state and therefore we do not believe that it is eligible to join the ICC."
 |
The ICC could potentially pursue Palestinians for prosecution as war criminals. |
The US Congress, always a formidable stronghold for Israel - rightly or wrongly dubbed by former Nixon communications director Pat Buchanan as "Israeli occupied territory" - responded.
"The PA's decision to join the ICC is deplorable, counterproductive, and will be met with a strong response by the United States Congress," read a statement issued by US Senators Mark Kirk, Lindsey Graham, Robert Menendez, Chuck Schumer and Bob Corker.
"Existing US law makes clear that if the Palestinians initiate an ICC judicially authorised investigation, or actively support such an investigation, all economic assistance to the PA must end. In light of this legal requirement, Congress will reassess its support for assistance to the PA and seek additional ways to make clear to the PA's President Mahmoud Abbas that we strongly oppose his efforts to seek membership in the ICC.
"If the ICC makes the egregious mistake of accepting the PA as a member, given that it is not a state, Congress will seek ways to protect Israeli citizens from politically abusive ICC actions."
The senators went on to say that, by joining the ICC, the PA would "take an organisation with laudable goals and undermine its credibility by turning it into a political battering ram against Israel" - something they say it has done to other organisations in the past (in an implicit reference to the United Nations General Assembly resolution equation of Zionism with Racism in 1975, and since rescinded).
Instead, senators urged Abbas: "The PA should end its pact with Islamist terror group Hamas and work towards an enduring, realistic solution to this ongoing conflict with Israel."
Nevermind that, as recently as two weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu disavowed his own 2009 half-hearted utterance accepting a vague concept of the two-state solution.
On the Palestinian side, an understandable flicker of triumphalism.
"I don't understand the opposition unless Netanyahu fears the court and what it might do," PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told reporters. "If he believes his army is the most moral army in the world... then he should not fear our accession to the court."
Conceding that the ICC could potentially pursue Palestinians - primarily Hamas fighters, but also PLO elements - for prosecution as war criminals, Maliki added that the PA would not hesitate to hand over Palestinian suspects if the court asked for them.
Palestine's membership of the ICC is very important for the Palestinian people, and marks a watershed event in their history, US insistence that "Palestine is not a state" notwithstanding.
The fact that ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda referred to "Palestine" in her examination is a huge step forward for the Palestinians. ICC Vice-President Kuniko Ozaki went further:
"Palestine acquires all the rights as well as responsibilities that come with being a State Party to the Statute," she said at the ceremony on April 1.
"These are substantive commitments, which cannot be taken lightly," stressing that the process was not one-sided.
|
The ICC examination could potentially begin to peel-off the layers of immunity granted to Israel by the West. |
While it is unlikely to get Palestinians the justice they have been denied for so long, it is significant in finally beginning to acknowledge the horrific injustice that has shattered their lives as a result of Israeli occupation of their land for more than sixty years.
We know the ICC will only examine evidence accumulated since June 2014.
There is no chance the Palestinians can show any of the mountain of evidence before that date that reaches back 67 years.
We are also aware the court is swamped with investigations in Africa and prosecutors already struggling to secure convictions. This makes bringing the case of Israeli war crimes in the "Palestinian occupied territories" anytime soon - if ever - a daunting proposition.
But for sure the ICC examination and possible prosecution could potentially begin to peel-off the layers of immunity granted to Israel by the West to continue conducting these very crimes.
Furthermore, no matter how remote, the moral message in ICC membership could - at least in theory - ensure justice for the Palestinian victims of grave Israeli crimes, but would more tangibly act as a deterrent when Israel launches another war against Gaza, for instance, or the next time its soldiers decide to shoot Palestinian teenagers demonstrating peacefully against the apartheid wall in the occupied West Bank.
If Israel announces a new settlement plan, Palestine could lodge an immediate complaint.
That's why the ICC membership and the investigation launched on Wednesday 1 April is of huge significance, and should not be squandered by the PA or bartered away for quick-fix financial aid or cheap political gains.
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