War-crimes court opens probe
The court did not suggest that charges against Israel — or the Palestinians — were looming or likely.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court opened a preliminary examination yesterday of possible war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, the first formal step that could lead to charges against Israelis.
Palestinian officials welcomed the announcement of the inquiry by the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, who described it as a required procedural step.
Israeli officials reacted furiously, calling it an inflammatory action in the protracted dispute with the Palestinians over Israeli-occupied lands.
Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said his government should not cooperate with the inquiry and should seek to disband the court, which he described as an anti-Israel institution that “embodies hypocrisy and grants a tailwind to terrorism.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, “Palestine considers this as an important positive step toward achieving justice and ensuring respect for international law.”
Accusing Israel of “systematic and blatant” breaches of international law, including during the war in Gaza last summer, the statement added, “Ending this impunity is an important contribution to upholding universal values, ensuring accountability and achieving peace.”
Bensouda’s announcement came two weeks after President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, over the objections of Israel and the United States, formally accepted the court’s jurisdiction.
The nonmember U.N. observer state of Palestine is the 123rd member of the court, which prosecutes war crimes and other atrocities.
The announcement, which had been expected, did not necessarily signal that Bensouda would pursue charges in her investigation of actions by Israel that the Palestinians assert to be war crimes, most notably the deadly attacks in the 50-day Gaza war.
Her preliminary examination, which could take months or even years, also could lead to charges against Palestinians for violence against Israelis, including the rocket assaults on Israeli civilians from militants based in Gaza.
In a statement yesterday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called the announcement scandalous, coming just days after four Jews were killed in a terrorist attack in France.
Framing Israel as a victim of terrorism, Netanyahu called the announcement “all the more absurd” because it had come at the behest of the Palestinian leadership, which he said was in alliance with Hamas, the Gaza-based militant group “whose war criminals fired thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians.”