The International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, has determined that the Hague does have jurisdiction to rule on the “Situation in Palestine.”
According to their decision last week, Palestine is a state and the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction involving its cases. This bombshell ruling can pave the way to war crimes investigations against Israel.
At this point, a three-judge panel of the ICC Pretrial Chamber needs to affirm the decision.
The PA has accused Israel of committing war crimes in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem as well as the Gaza Strip.
Israel however, is not a party to the Rome Statute and is therefore not bound by the ICC. The Palestinian Authority is however, despite the fact that it is not a full member state of the UN.
Under Bensouda’s 60-page decision, the ICC can assert its jurisdiction in “territory” that “comprises the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.”
NGO Monitor’s Legal Advisor Anne Herzberg told Breaking Israel News that:
“The Prosecutor’s response demonstrates that she is not interested in a fair judicial process, nor in upholding the law. She completely ignores the overwhelming and decisive information provided to the Court by dozens of Middle East and legal experts as well as seven ICC Member States, proving that the Court has no jurisdiction in this matter.
Instead, she relies on unsupported claims by pro-BDS and terror-linked NGOs and one-sided rhetoric from biased UN bodies, like the Human Rights Council.
Recent reports that Bensouda has been colluding closely with the Palestinian Authority and associated terror groups confirms that her prosecution is politically motivated and not guided by law or justice.
The prosecutor’s response doesn’t offer anything new in responding to strong evidence submitted by many experts, including by us, to her initial request.
Absurdly, in discussing the role played by the bilateral Oslo Accords in the question of jurisdiction, she contradicts the submission of one of the Accords’ actual negotiators, Dennis Ross.”
