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Egypt Independent
The International Criminal Court announced, on Thursday, that it has sent formal notices to Israel and the Palestinian Authority about its impending investigation into possible war crimes. The court gave the two parties one month to seek deferral by proving they are carrying out their own investigations.
Earlier this month, the ICC announced it would investigate possible war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian militants, following a Palestinian request. The latter joined the court in 2015, after being granted non-member observer status by the UN General Assembly.
Israel has fiercely condemned the investigation, accusing the ICC of bias and saying it has no jurisdiction since the Palestinians do not have a state. Israel is not a member of the ICC, but its citizens could be subject to arrest abroad if warrants are issued.
The ICC prosecutor’s office confirmed, in a written statement to The Associated Press, that on 9 March, letters were sent to all of the court’s member states and those states which would normally exercise jurisdiction, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli and Palestinian officials declined to comment.
The ICC is expected to focus on the 2014 Gaza war, Israel’s crackdown on often-violent border protests in Gaza in recent years and Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied West Bank. The probe will also look at militant rocket fired from Gaza onto civilian areas in Israel.
Israel could respond to the letter by detailing its own efforts to investigate potential crimes and hold its citizens to account. If the court is satisfied with the process, it could allow it to unfold under periodic ICC supervision, postponing or even cancelling its own investigation.
Israel can also potentially avail itself of that option, for the allegations regarding violence on Gaza, as it says it routinely investigates and punishes wrongdoing by its own troops.
The construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war, which the Palestinians want for their future state, is an official state policy dating back decades ago. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where Israel subsidizes housing and provides security and infrastructure.
The international law forbids the transfer of civilians to territory occupied in war.
Israel’s mostly ceremonial President Reuven Rivlin and its military chief, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, have been rallying opposition to the ICC during a European tour this week which has taken them to Germany, Austria and France.
“Every attempt to twist Israel’s hands through international bodies by cynical or political exploitation of international law is doomed to failure”, Rivlin said in Paris on Thursday.
