U.S. Says Palestinian Moves against Israel at ICC ‘Counterproductive’

The Palestinian Authority has made its first submission of evidence of alleged Israeli war crimes to the worldwide Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

“If the IDF attempt to commandeer the ship, we will not resist, but we will submit a complaint against the soldiers for piracy”, he said, according to the Israeli daily Maariv.

It’s a subtle difference, but an economically important one for the Palestinians. A test the world can not afford to fail.

Spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Emmanuel Naschon said earlier this week that the Flotilla has “announced their intention to go to Gaza, but we will not allow this because Gaza is under a naval blockade approved by worldwide law“.

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

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, joined the court in April and Bensouda has opened a preliminary investigation related to Gaza.

The council’s report is also being studied by investigators at the ICC.

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.

It noted that the majority of children who are prosecuted in Israel’s military courts are charged with throwing stones. “It depends on their ability to enter Palestinian territory without problems”, he said.

The commission expressed its concern at Israel’s “extensive use of weapons with a wide kill-and-injury radius; though not illegal, their use in densely populated areas is highly likely to kill combatants and civilians indiscriminately”. If Israel can prove it is making a supreme effort to remain as moral as possible, even when it’s fighting fanatics, it will have the ideological and legal upper hand and its image will improve commensurately. Gaza’s dominant Hamas group ignored the accusations against it and called for prosecutions of Israeli leaders.

The ICC was set up in 2002 to investigate and try those responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, where national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.

Lowey said Congress crafted the law to prevent US tax dollars from rewarding “purposely provocative, unilateral steps” that threaten peace negotiations.

Israel has also warned the Palestinians that they will pay a price for taking their case to the worldwide Criminal Court.

Nineteen House Democrats signed a letter urging the Obama administration to make Israel’s treatment of imprisoned Palestinian minors a priority in the U.S.-Israel relationship. Talks on a Palestinian state in territory Israel captured in a 1967 war collapsed previous year and there is no prospect of reviving them.