Ted Belman. In a similar vein to Graham, Canada’s FM Baird told Yaalon “I think the Palestinian Authority has made a huge mistake [by joining the body] and crossed a red line.” They are right in accusing the PA of essentially violating the Oslo Accords but they are wrong in not attacking the ICC for accepting them (a non-state) and investigating the alleged crimes. Prior to this happening, all experts agreed that it wouldn’t happen because the Court only pursues major violations and even then only if non-signatories don’t conduct a competent investigation of its own. Neither criteria is satisfied here plus the PA doesn’t represent a state. Experts always said the the ICC was a serious court and wouldn’t be politicized. The experts were wrong on all accounts. They forgot that anything goes when it comes to Israel.
Ranking US senator calls the Palestinian move a “bastardizing of the role of the ICC.”
The Palestinians could lose annual US aid if they file a lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court which they joined this month over American and Israeli protests, a senior US Republican senator said on Monday.
Lindsey Graham, part of a seven-member delegation of senators visiting Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, said existing US legislation “would cut off aid to the Palestinians if they filed a complaint” against Israel.
At a news conference in Jerusalem, Graham called the Palestinian step “a bastardizing of the role of the ICC. I find it incredibly offensive.”
“We will push back strongly to register our displeasure. It is already part of our law that would require us to stop funding if they actually bring a case,” said Graham, of South Carolina.
US President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration has said it does not believe Palestine is a sovereign state and therefore does not qualify to be part of the ICC, but has not explicitly threatened to withhold aid.
Any cut in US funds could make it hard for the Palestinian self-rule authority in the West Bank and Gaza to survive. The US supplies more than $400 million annually to the Palestinian Authority. Israel has frozen a monthly transfer of some $120 million in tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has confirmed the Palestinians will formally become a member of the ICC on April 1, after applying earlier this month.
With jurisdiction dating back to June 13, 2014, the court’s prosecutor could investigate the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in July and August 2014.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas applied to the court after losing a vote at the UN Security Council seeking a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.
Israel and the United States deplore Palestinian moves at the UN as unilateral steps that undermine diplomacy, which has made little progress in years and collapsed most recently in April.
Graham urged the Palestinians to re-evaluate ICC membership, saying he supported their aspirations for statehood but opposed joining the court as a “provocative step” against Israel.
Whats with the “may be”?