Inter-ministerial panel tasked with planning sovereignty extension over territory, as promised by Netanyhau, reportedly cancels first meeting, fearing ICC war crimes investigation
By TOI STAFF
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before a map of the Jordan Valley as he gives a statement, promising to extend Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area, in Ramat Gan on September 10, 2019. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex the West Bank’s Jordan Valley have reportedly entered a “deep freeze” following the International Criminal Court’s decision to move forward with a potential war crimes.
The Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Tuesday that a first inter-ministerial meeting to discuss extending Israeli sovereignty over the territory was canceled last week, hours before it was scheduled to start, after it became clear that an ICC announcement of a probe was forthcoming.
The ICC’s top prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced on Friday that there was a “basis” for proceeding with an investigation into crimes allegedly committed in the Palestinian territories, including Israel’s settlement policy, the 2014 Gaza war, and the Israeli response to violent protests on the Gaza Strip border.
The ICC also said it would look at the targeting of civilians by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups.
In her announcement, Bensouda mentioned Netanyahu’s stated plans to annex parts of the West Bank. Tuesday’s report said that government officials fear moving forward with the plans will escalate the confrontation with the ICC.
“Because of the decision of the prosecutor in The Hague, the issue of annexing the Jordan Valley will enter a deep freeze,” an unnamed source told Yedioth.
The inter-ministerial committee, chaired by Acting Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office Ronen Peretz, had been tasked with pushing ahead with the annexation move, including formulating a government decision on the matter and Knesset legislation.
Earlier this month the ICC’s Report on Preliminary Examination Activities made headlines in Israel for stating that Bensouda “followed with concern proposals advanced during the recent electoral process, to be tabled to the Knesset, for Israel to annex the Jordan Valley in the West Bank.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly promised to quickly apply Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley — a quarter of the West Bank — if he is able to put together a new government amid an ongoing political gridlock. His Likud party has even claimed that the premier is only interested in staying in office for an additional six months — a unity coalition negotiation demand — in order to see that promise through.
On Monday Netanyahu accused the ICC of “pure anti-Semitism for its probe decision.
“The claims of the ICC prosecutor that Jews have no right to live in the homeland of the Jewish people is pure anti-Semitism,” he said in a statement.
The prime minister made similar remarks on Sunday, when he vowed, “We will not bow our heads.”
Prosecutor Bensouda has referred the matter of the probe to the Hague-based tribunal to rule on the specific territory over which it has jurisdiction, as Israel is not a member of the court.
On Sunday Israel’s cabinet approved a request by Netanyahu to classify its deliberations about the ICC’s move and agreed that further discussions on the matter would be held in the high-level security cabinet, Hebrew media said.
Two unnamed ministers told Channel 12 news that publication of Israeli efforts to thwart the ICC’s launching of an investigation could damage the national interests.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday condemned the court’s announcement, saying it “unfairly targets” Israel, but did not say whether the US would act against the ICC over the move.
The Trump administration has previously threatened the court with sanctions and visa denial if it investigates Americans or Israelis. In April, it revoked ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s visa over a possible investigation of American troops’ actions in Afghanistan.
@ greenrobot:
Respectfully,If Israel OWNS a property,how can it
annex it ?
Eddie
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
Adam: A respectful question……
with no known jurisdiction……
with no known crimes committed…….
how can someone be arrested?
Please remember i’m in kindergarten…..
Eddie
Freeze DENIED!
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
I’m glad that you pointed out that she had refused and gave the “all clear” 3 times already to Israel. I wrote about it just a day or two ago. It matters nothing that the extending of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley is delayed. Only hotheads and fools want immediate aggressive action. There are times and places where one or the other is warranted. This is the time to keep quiet….
Here, dealing with an international entity. it is |softly, softly”, which is the thing to do. When they go away , the matter of the Jordan Valley can proceed. That is Netanhayu’s STYLE and as we all see, Israel has benefited enormously from it. We are suddenly a world superpower. Only because of Netanyahu’s REALPOLITIK combined with his Machiavellian wisdom.
The ICC only has jurisdiction over INDIVIDUALS…NOT COUNTRIES. It’s a paper tiger/ It has prosecuted a total of 14 individuals in total, over it’s many years of existence. some convicted, others not, and has 4 pending. So let it fiddle around, The Prosecutor is harmless, because she has already declared that Israel has a competent legal system, and refused to interfere. She’s being pressured to proceed. Even if this time she reverses…what harm will it do…??
if Israel is not a signatory to the Rome statute , they need to move immediately to annex the valley.
It took Israel 100 yrs to conquer the land from the Canninites. History seems to be repeating itself.
Bibi and the entire Israeli government are cowards when it comes to dealing with UN and EU bodies. The prosecutor in question is not especially hostile to Israel. She had refused demands from the judges of the court three times to begin an investigation of Israeli “war crimes.” She finally gave in to the judge’s demands on their fourth “request.” I don’t think Israel has much to fear from her. If the ICC has decided to order the arrest of Israeli officials for supposed war crimes, Israel’s refraining from annexing the Jordan Valley won’t deter them.
“Netanyahu’s plans to annex the West Bank’s Jordan Valley”
By “West Bank’s Jordan Valley” — do you mean Judea and Samaria’s border area with Jordan? That is what it has been called for thousands of years and I see no reason to change it, now that Jordan has longer illegally occupied it since 1967.
Immediate annexation should have been the response. Jordan valley is, was and will allways be part of Israel. Does bintsouda think she can determine the area should be under someone else’s jurisdiction? Time to face facts nutunyahoo lost control long ago. He alone gave away most of hevron, he’s responsible for the bedwins still camping in jerusalem area.