ICC chief prosecutor’s report – claims jurisdiction over Judea and Samaria

PA says it will assist the International Criminal Court in The Hague in prosecuting “Israeli war criminals”.

By Dalit Halevi, INN

Fatou Bensouda

Fatou Bensouda<
>
Saeb Erekat, Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee, on Thursday praised what he described as the “courageous and responsible” report of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, who ruled that “Palestine” is a state and the ICC has jurisdiction involving its cases.

Erekat said in a statement that Bensouda had asked the preparatory committee to determine that the area of ??jurisdiction of the ICC includes the “West Bank” and eastern Jerusalem as well as the Gaza Strip.

“The arrival of Palestine at this stage sends a message of hope to our (Palestinian) people that the date is coming on which a criminal investigation will be launched against those in Israel who have committed war crimes against the Palestinian people,” Erekat said.

He noted that the “State of Palestine” is ready to provide all the assistance needed to the ICC to advance the investigation against Israel.

Bensouda announced this past December that she intends to open a full investigation into alleged Israeli “war crimes”, but before opening a full probe, asked the ICC to rule on the territory over which it has jurisdiction because of the “unique and highly contested legal and factual issues attaching to this situation.”

The prosecutor added, however, that she did not require any authorization from judges to open a probe as there had been a referral from the PA, which joined the court in 2015 and has since filed a series of legal complaints with it against Israel.

Bensouda’s announcement was criticized in Israel and also by countries such as Australia and Hungary. Germany, meanwhile, backed Israel’s argument that the court’s jurisdiction does not extend to Palestinian Authority-assigned areas, as “Palestine” is not a state that fulfills all the criteria under general international law.

Before the ICC said it would delay the debate on the jurisdiction, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called for sanctions against the ICC, saying its investigation into Israel’s actions against Hamas in 2014 was a “full frontal attack” on democracies’ rights to self-defense.

May 1, 2020 | 8 Comments »

Leave a Reply

8 Comments / 8 Comments

  1. This action by Fatty is simply illegal and outside her powers and thus she holds herself out to be sued. Leaving aside the many legally well founded arguments that Palestine is not a state as it has no borders etc and that the ICC does not have the power to draw borders, the simple continuin legal principle in action is the San Remo decision wherein the whole of the territory (including present day Jordan) is Israel. International Law states that once a law has been recognised and actioned then it cannot be superseded or altered. San Remo is sacrosanct and cannot be changed even by later UN resoutions. It cannot be reversed.

    All that being said, it is legally impossible for any court to attempt to establish a state within a state. Any decision by any court that ignores or attempts to nullify or alter San Remo resolution is simply null and void and thus this Prosecutor must be sued for acting ultra vires and for the clear bias and prejudice she has already shown by meeting with Palestinians and refusing to meet with Israelis. This woman is evidencing that she is the rotting fruit of Jewhate

  2. @ Reader:
    The ICC-ratifying states comprise a small minority of humanity — namely the EU and some affiliate countries — yet it presumes to make binding laws for the whole world. This is an example of the chutzpah of the EU and its elitist, Globalist controllers. If the UK leadership ever develops testicles, they will join the rest of the world in rejecting the ICC.

    The UN General Assembly is not authorized to “establish” states; that reqauires the assent of the UN Security Council, over which the US has veto power.

  3. You are all right. The Montevedeo Convention rules, though some states ignore it.

    Trump will not allow this investigation to proceed because it has grave implications for the US also. Neither the US nor Israel ratified the Rome Statute that gave birth to the ICC.

    “The Rome Statute established four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Those crimes “shall not be subject to any statute of limitations”. It was intended that the violations must be “grave” to be prosecuted.

    The PA succeeded in getting the following clause added even though it is not included in any of these crimes and transferring populations has never been considered a war crime and it was part of the solution to ending WWII and the partition of Pakistan from India among others.

    “According to Section 6(1)(b)(viii), “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” constitutes a war crime in international armed conflicts.”

  4. The Montevideo Convention sets out the criteria for a state. A state must have 1) a defined territory; 2) a permanent population; 3) a government and 4) a capacity to enter into relations with other states. Any number of legal experts have written that “Palestine is not a state.” If you do a search for this, you’ll find at least several articles specifying why “Palestine” does not qualify as a state. Bensouda apparently doesn’t know much about international law.

  5. Now if Israel tries to take the 30%, the ICC will assign (has already assigned bc it ruled that P. is a state?) the remaining 70% plus East Jerusalem, plus Gaza to “Palestine” and demand that the 30% and Israel be cut up by special roads belonging to “Palestine” so that the “Palestinians” can travel freely to see their Arab brethren.
    And the ICC will treat any annexation by Israel as an “international crime”.
    Israel should have never allowed those settlement construction freezes (under Netanyahu, BTW).

  6. Since when does the ICC have the legal authority to establish a Palestinian State, or any other State? Even the UN does not have that authority.
    Why are the democracies of the world funding this corrupt body of shysters? They should pull the financial plug on the entire UN edifice and all its branches including the ICC. It never has done any good in the world since its creation and as it is now an unashamedly Islamic dominated tool there is no chance that it ever will.