I have long taken the position that Israel shouldn’t be looking for a commitment from Abbas not to go to the ICC for the reasons set out in this article. Ted Belman
On November 29th 2012, Palestine was voted by the United Nations General Assembly to be a non-member observer state. Although seen to be a largely symbolic vote, this decision provoked huge hopes, fears and discussions because the “media” thought that Palestine could now take Israel to the International Criminal Court and prosecute them. This gained so much traction that the international community and Abu Mazen started to use the threat of the ICC as their main hope to force Israel to make new concessions. However, upon further inspection into how the ICC operates, it becomes clear that Israel has little to worry about.
In 2002, the International Criminal Court was created with the hope of fighting crimes against humanity. The court only has jurisdiction over the states that are parties to its statute (countries that volunteered to be in it), which at this point in time, is 122 countries. For the most part, countries that are unlikely to be involved in conflict have joined the court, while those likely to be involved in conflict have not.
Israel for obvious reasons is not a party to the ICC. However, Palestine has attempted to give jurisdiction of their territory to the ICC with the hope of being able to prosecute Israel. After operation Cast Lead in 2009, Palestine tried to involve the ICC but had their request denied because they were not considered a state. Palestine believes that now, after the UNGA vote that the ICC would accept their case.
I will detail some of the hurdles that the Palestinians could face if they attempted to appeal to the ICC to prosecute Israel. The first is whether the PLO could even have their case heard. The ICC only hears cases if the Security Council refers them to it, or if the state is a party to the court. Nobody knows if the ICC will accept Palestine as a state even with the general assembly vote and without this, the ICC cannot hear a case regarding Israel. In 2009, the first time Palestine attempted to take a case to the court, it took three entire years before the ICC made a ruling on whether to hear the case or not. Whatever the court decides, it will take a significant amount of time before anything actually happens.
There is also the issue of politics. The ICC presently has low credibility and is seeking to increase its membership and presence in international affairs. If the ICC were to accept this case, it would have far reaching implications outside of Israel’s borders. Every state currently in a land dispute, or with soldiers on a foreign soil would feel threatened. The decision to hear this case would not only alienate Israel, but many other important countries in the world.
The ICC can only make rulings on a state’s territory, however the borders between Israel and Palestine are undefined and the ICC responsibility is not to produce borders. Even if the ICC were to accept the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan as the defined border of Palestine (which were specifically stated to not be borders), there would still be even further complications. In the 1949 armistice agreement, there is a vast swath of land known as “no mans land”. This land was never under Palestinian or Jordanian control, so it is extremely unlikely that the ICC could have judgment on anything that falls into this area.
Similarly, Before the Independence war, Jerusalem was supposed to be under international sovereignty, and as a result, the international community did not even recognize Israel’s sovereignty of West Jerusalem. It is unlikely that the ICC would recognize East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory, thus making the Palestinian claim even weaker.
Moreover, regardless of if Israel occupies the West Bank or not, Palestine is not and has not ever been the high contracting party of the land. Additionally, through the Oslo Agreements signed between the PLO and Israel, Israel has complete criminal jurisdiction over Area C in the West Bank. Because all of the Israeli settlements reside in Area C and the PLO has conceded territorial sovereignty over this land, it would make their case even more difficult.
The ICC is meant to only hear cases regarding the most severe and heinous crimes. Settlement building is not a crime that compares to the ones that the ICC has in the past dealt with, and would be outside of anything similar to what the ICC is supposed to deal with. It is unlikely that Israel has committed any actions that pass the gravity threshold of the ICC’s mandate.
Furthermore, the ICC only deals with crimes that have taken place after a state becomes a party to the court. That means that the ICC would not be dealing with anything from 1948-2013, but only specific actions that would be taking place in the future.
Lastly, the ICC can only deal with issues that are not already subject to some sort of internal review, commission or trial. What this means is that the ICC can only punish crimes that the state chooses not to investigate. Everything that Israel does in the West Bank is subject to these types of reviews. Because the IDF will review and penalize its soldiers for their actions in the West Bank, they would be immune to any sort of prosecution from the ICC. However, this leads to a much more interesting thought.
If the ICC were to accept Palestine as a state and hear their case, it means that crimes committed by Palestine would also be subject to the ICC. As the PLO does not launch any serious review, commission, or inquiry into crimes committed in their territory, it means that every war crime committed by Hamas and other terrorist organizations would be subject to review by the ICC. As the terrorist acts by these groups are much more heinous and almost certainly meet the threshold of gravity, it is much more likely that any attempt by the PLO to appeal to the ICC would lead to them being punished, not Israel.
The next time Abu Mazen tries to coerce Israel into making further concessions by threat of the ICC, understand that Israel has nothing to worry about.
Daniel Frank is a Canadian graduate student at Tel Aviv University…
The author has not considered the double standards that Israel is subjected to in international institutions. The ICC rules would most certainly be temporarily broken in order to charge Israel. This does NOT mean I think Israel should cave in to abbas’ threats, they should not.
@ yamit82:
There is a culture of denial of the high cost of toxic contaminants in terms of health. This culture of denial is fostered by politicians and industry acting in collusion, busy as they are pillaging the planet. Government-backed industry will keep hiding the facts, and if they ever become public, they have an army of expensive lawyers to help them out.
Hanford in Washington State has been a problem for decades. Physicians for social responsibility call it “the most contaminated site in the western world”. Storage tanks containing nuclear waste have been leaking, heading underground to the Columbia River – with no solution in sight. There was a recent report that Hanford gas leakage could lead to an explosion – http://enenews.com/tv-hanford-radioactive-waste-tanks-could-explode-continuously-generating-flammable-gas-video
That’s “clean nuclear energy” for you. And by the way, your ME neighbors want to have their own (peaceful) nuclear reactors to play with, and the West is willing to indulge them.
Canadian Otter Said:
Medical Journal Article: 14,000 U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor Disaster Fallout
Impact Seen As Roughly Comparable to Radiation-Related Deaths After Chernobyl; Infants Are Hardest Hit, With Continuing Research Showing Even Higher Possible Death Count.
Read More
ALMOST FORGOTTEN – but not for the working class areas of Tel Aviv: the illegal African migrant squatters preying on Jews. The Interior Minister toured the area and promised – seriously promised – to send the infiltrators home. http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-will-work-to-send-the-infiltrators-back-saar-says/ – He didn’t say how many, or how soon. ~~~~~ In the meantime Jews have to wait and suffer, fearing the next rape or murder, and hiding while they watch their neighborhoods go to hell. – Migrant rapes woman after being released from jail for indecent exposure – http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4365105,00.html – Human rights groups disregard the rights of Jews and focus their efforts on keeping this criminal and illegal element in Israel forever.
@ Canadian Otter:
Unfortunately the cast of characters little Hitler and the Mullahs who run and control Iran could care less. They treat their citizens and especially women like crap so you know they are dangerous.
When Ovomit took office there was an uprising in the making in Iran and the US and some of her allies could have made a difference and did nothing.
Gives you an idea of the character in question.
I hope the clowns who drank the kool-aid wake up with one helluva hangover, they deserve the very worst.
It doesn’t take a space science to understand Ovomit who studied under his fathers communist friend was no more than “an acorn community organizing pamphlet distributing anti-Semite pretending to be a Christian for political reasons who embraces Islam, orchestrated by another anti-Semite George Soros & co. and the liberal left media.
Nuclear accidents and close calls are reported almost daily on certain websites. It’s all kept out of the mainstream media. ~~~ Enenews: Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Gregory Jaczko says that the current fleet of operating plants in the US should be phased out because regulators can’t guarantee against an accident causing widespread land contamination. In two key decisions last week Jaczko said the agency “damaged significantly” its international reputation for upholding safety and he accused the five commissioners of “just rolling the dice” in dealing with severe accidents. http://enenews.com/former-top-u-s-nuclear-official-u-s-nuclear-plants-should-be-phased-out-cant-guarantee-against-accident-causing-widespread-land-contamination.
Iran should be banned from having any nuclear reactors. If Israel’s safety is not a concern, and if Muslim minds’s notorious instablity is not a concern either, then Iran nuclear reactors should be banned because the geological area is highly unstable. There was a major earthquake there yesterday.
@ Canadian Otter:
That’s some bad stuff. Contamination begins there but unfortunately it doesn’t end there and by the time it is discovered elsewhere it’s too late and the injury to life could be beyond help.
In Pennsylvania we had Three Mile Island disaster, we were lucky then of course you have Chernobyl that claimed a number of lives and major health problems are still being recognized.
Nuclear energy is great but requires a lot of respect and handling. You can’t sleep walk or text while your working with this stuff.
And you better have one great emergency plan in place.
Remember above all, in spite of the good we can gain from clean energy the negative could be devastating.
@ Samuel Fistel:
Please have a look at this for a better understanding of Israel’s legal status in the so called “occupied territories”.
Israel’s rights
@ rongrand:
Quite true. The problem is that Israeli authorities keep encouraging these clowns. The more the Israeli govt encourages them, the more seriously they take themselves.
I mentioned the Fukushima catastrophe on the “Two States Solution” column. Kerry and his boss would do so much good to the world if they could intervene and make the Japanese accept their help to contain that ongoing disaster. US politicians wash their hands from a real catastrophe affecting the whole planet, but they bully little Israel. – It makes them feel like real men.
News of Fukushima and other current disasters: http://enenews.com/
@ Canadian Otter:
Kerry is a strange bird.
A couple of so called scratches on his ass during the Vietnam war was able to get him home. His thoughts of being another JFK failed when he discovered war is hell and you can get killed without trying.
He later demonstrated against the war and supposedly threw his medals away.
A real puss who tries coming off as a macho guy.
He married the former Senator Heinz wife and is now full of ketchup.
Tell him to go home and if he wants to do something worthwhile, he can convince those in Washington to move the US Embassy to the capital of Israel, the Sovereign Jewish Nation of Israel where it should be.
Lying or self-deluded? Sec of State Kerry said that partitioning Israel (he calls it “solving the conflict”) would help mitigate terrorism. During the Barbary Wars in the 18th century thousands of Europeans and North Americans were abducted, held for ransom, enslaved, and raped by Muslim pirates. Whatever motivated Muslim rage then, it wasn’t Israel or the Jews, with Jews quietly trying to survive in their ghettos. ~~~ An educated man such as Mr Kerry must be aware that Islam has unleashed terror and carnage and invaded and occupied other people’s lands since its beginning in the 7th century. ~~~~~ Kerry: “this festering absence of peace is used by groups everywhere to recruit and encourage extremism” – What about the absence of peace in just about country and region with Muslims in it? But it’s so much more politically expedient to blame the Jews for Islam’s murders, violence and terror. If he could only feed the terrorists a little more Jewish land, he thinks, maybe they won’t feel so compelled to blast other people to pieces.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/04/08/Kerry-Turkey-Israel
ISRAELI CATS at work.
Cute article by Yori Yanover about cats and crows keeeping Israeli streets safe and clean.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/photos/guard-cats-and-crows/2013/04/09/
Israel will have to quietly ensure that this does not come to the ICC by quietly telling the ICC by back channels that if it rules in favor of the Islamonazis, it will be considered as a terrorist organization, and Israel will respond accordingly.
The ICC will only take cases to which both parties consent.
Abu Bluff’s threat is an empty one and Israel should not be cowed by it.
The International Criminal Court only tries individuals:
The ICC can only bring individuals to justice; not entire states, and not governments.
For Abbas to bring “Israel” to the ICC for “crimes against the Palestinians”, he would have to name an individual Israeli he holds responsible. And whom could he possibly name: Netanyahu?, Barak?, Peres? That wouldn’t do much for the “peace” process.
And if this somehow ever went forward, imagine the other possibilities this precedent could set: Israel sends Abbas, Mashaal, and Haniyeh to the ICC, Georgia sends Putin, Iraq and Afghanistan send Obama, Tibet sends China, Iran sends Saudi Arabia, Cyprus sends Erdogan, etc., etc., ad infinitum.
Since the ICC already has minimal credibility, this would really make it even more of a laughingstock.
There is also something called the International Court of Justice. This is the court belonging to the United Nations. It is a kangaroo court staffed by third-world and liberal judges pre-selected for their Jew-hatred. It has already rendered an “advisory opinion” that the Israeli settlements are “illegal under international law”. But it does not appear that the palestinians (“a non-member observer state”) could use it to try Israel, without the consent of Israel (and ultimately America).
@ Yidvocate:
Yes, I agree with Yidvocate, the ICC will suddenly revamp its bureaucratic methods, speed up its delivery of “justice” and find loopholes in its own modus operandi and laws just to torture Israel with Nazi efficiency.
Every other rule has been broken for Palestinian terrorists so why would this international body operate any differently? Were we living in a world where law mattered, the Palestinians would have been resettled in Jordan, Syria and Egypt long ago. The world (UN I mean) created UNRWA specifically to extend the conflict indefinitely to the benefit of Arabs and the humiliation of Israel.
When you claim to be a victim, especially a Pal victim, the South Americans and Europeans who basically dominate the ICC will bend in one thousand different ways to accommodate terrorists. No hurdle will be too great for countries looking to punish the Jews (again). Any and all excuses will serve their nefarious purpose.
Does anyone recall the fact that Nazis found refuge in South America and Europeans facilitated the escape of Nazis to warmer climes post WWII? That is what they think of Jews. Now Islamic terrorists find safe haven on both continents and I am sure that the ICC will not bust their collective asses to prosecute state actors who harbor terrorists. They will, however, gladly redefine their rules to label Israelis criminals working to thwart the freedoms of good Pals.
Wishful thinking by the author.
He fails to appreciate that antisemitism can and will overcome all procedural and jurisdictional barriers and the palys know it.
Blind hate = blind justice.