Palestinians submits evidence against Israel to worldwide court

A test the world can not afford to fail. “Secretary Kerry, we urge the Department of State to elevate the human rights of Palestinian children to a priority status in our bilateral relations with the government of Israel”.

They took place a few days after Israel launched a 50-day war against Hamas in Gaza which killed some 2,200 Palestinians, majority civilians, and 73 on the Israeli side, majority soldiers. Palestinian armed groups fired 4881 rockets and 1753 mortars towards Israel, killing six civilians and injuring at least 1600.

The ICC team is expected in Israel around the end of the month.

One year later, the second flotilla, Stay Human, also failed to carry out its mission, Press TV reported.

Israel controls all crossings into the West Bank but Gaza can be accessed from Israel or Egypt although the latter has closed border crossing points for security reasons.

Violence by settlers against the Palestinian population, the report said, “continued to be a problem, as did inconsistent punishment of these acts by Israeli authorities”.

The leaders of Israel’s army must understand that the strategy of massively bombarding inhabited areas is unacceptable, and that they must develop new, sophisticated fighting methods to deal with terror organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah.

But the court seeks to indict the highest authority in a chain of command, so if Israel were prosecuted, the defendant would not be a conscript but a top Israeli commander or Netanyahu himself.

Even Russia, a foe of the ICC, has met court prosecutors related to their inquiry into alleged crimes in Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia and over the events leading up to the 2014 overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president. “We wanted to have an exclusive report made for the ICC”. It doesn’t give proper weight to the fact that in 2000 Israel agreed to leave the Gaza Strip and set up a sovereign Palestinian state, there and in the West Bank. On Thursday, members of the USA Congress said the Palestinians’ “misguided” action threatened USA aid.

“Finally, we are aboard the Swedish freedom boat the Marianne, and we are on our way to Gaza”, MK Basel Ghattas (Joint Arab List) said on his Facebook page.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki handed global Criminal Court prosecutors a file Thursday detailing possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza and settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israel also argues that the ICC inquiry will make it harder to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians.