JERUSALEM – The International Criminal Court on Friday ruled that it had jurisdiction over the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, despite Israel insisting against it, and paving the way for an investigation into allegations of Israeli and Palestinian war crimes in the region.
The ICC ruling in The Hague came six years after the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, began a preliminary investigation into Israeli actions in the territories, including during the devastating 50-day war in Gaza. 2014.
The decisive precedent set more than a year after Ms. Bensouda asked the court to confirm his jurisdiction in the area was seen by Palestinian leaders and human rights organizations as a step towards the victims. It was honored by Israel as a controversial political move without a valid legal basis.
“Today, the court has once again proved that it is a political body and not a judicial institution,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “The court ignores actual war crimes and prosecutes the state of Israel, a state with a fixed democratic regime that sanctifies the rule of law and is not a member of the court.”
He later issued a more insulting video statement accusing the International Criminal Court of ‘pure anti-Semitism’ while ‘refusing to investigate cruel dictatorships such as Iran and Syria, which commit atrocious atrocities almost daily’.
“We will fight this distortion of justice with all our might,” he concluded.
The State Department expressed “serious concern” about the decision in a statement by a spokesman, Ned Price. “The United States has always taken the view that the jurisdiction of the court should be reserved for countries that consent to it, or that are referred by the UN Security Council,” he said.
While Israel is not a member of the court, the Palestinians joined in 2015 and asked for the ICC investigation.
The court ruled that Palestine, for its purposes, qualifies as the state in the area where the events in question took place and that the territorial jurisdiction is defined to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The decision was not unanimous, and one of the three judges, Péter Kovács, disagreed and disputed that the court was competent in this case.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh praised the ruling from The Hague as a victory for justice and a redress for the victims of Israeli war crimes. “The resolution 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,” he said.
Now that the court has ruled that it has jurisdiction, Ms. Bensouda, the chief prosecutor, decides whether to continue with the investigation or leave the decision to her successor. Her term ends in June.
In the past, she has quoted a ‘reasonable basis for believing’ that war crimes have been committed, pointing to what she described as Israel’s excessive use of the war in Gaza in 2014 and the continued settlement activity in the West Bank and East. Jerusalem. . Israel’s deadly response to Palestinian protests in 2018 along the border fence in Gaza is also being investigated.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said the ruling “opens the door to the pursuit of criminal responsibility for the most serious crimes under the court’s mandate, which are already being committed against the Palestinian people.”
But the investigation could also cover alleged Palestinian-related crimes, including the West Bank authorities torturing opponents and supporting attacks on Israeli civilians, Amnesty International said.
The chief prosecutor also cited possible war crimes by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, and other armed groups there, because they indiscriminately fired thousands of rockets into civilian areas in Israel and used Palestinian civilians as human shields.
Balkees Jarrah, co-international judge director at Human Rights Watch, said the court’s ruling “ultimately offers victims of serious crimes real hope for justice after half a century of impunity.” She added: “It is high time that Israeli and Palestinian perpetrators of justice from the most serious abuse – whether it was war crimes committed during hostilities or the expansion of illegal settlements – get justice.”
The filing of a case against Israel in the International Criminal Court has long been seen by the Palestinians as a risky move that would anger Israel and alienate the United States.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signed the Rome Statute, the treaty that the court created and governs, in December 2014 over the strong objections of Israel and the United States. It was part of a strategy to pursue state capture in the international arena after another failed round of US negotiations.
Israel originally supported the establishment of the International Court of Justice in 2002, but it did not ratify the Rome Statute, in part for fear of settling the issue of settlements.
As a non-member, he cannot appeal against Friday’s ruling. But Israel’s attorney general has repeatedly argued that only a sovereign state can delegate authority to the ICC, and that the territories in question were not a Palestinian sovereign state.
Israel had been preparing for the decision for months, and although it finally came Friday night, while Israel was generally closed for the Sabbath, angry officials quickly condemned the verdict.
The Foreign Ministry said the court was dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and driving the parties further apart, after the Palestinian Authority resumed security cooperation with Israel. The Ministry of Justice calls the decision harmful and superfluous.
Israel has long had a protracted relationship with United Nations investigators. In 2008 it refused access to prof. Richard A. Falk, a special rapporteur for the United Nations Human Rights Council for the Palestinian Territories, considers his positions hostile and says he is not welcome. Professor Falk said he was not hostile to Israel but criticized its occupation policy.
In 2009, a panel of the United Nations investigating Israel’s invasion of Gaza that year claimed that Israel had deliberately killed Palestinian citizens there, but two years later the panel’s leader, Richard Goldstone, accused a South African jurist , withdrew the explosive allegation.