The Palestinians announced Wednesday that they are joining the International Criminal Court to pursue war-crimes charges against the Jewish state — a risky, high-stakes move that brought threats of retaliation from Israel and criticism from the US
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded a day after suffering a defeat in the UN Security Council, which voted down a resolution setting a three-year deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel.
“We want to complain. There’s aggression against us, against our land. The Security Council disappointed us,” Abbas said.
Turning to the international court at The Hague marks a major policy shift, transforming Abbas’ relations with Israel from tense to openly hostile. The ultimate goal is to pressure Israel into withdrawing from the territories and agreeing to Palestinian statehood.
The strategy carries risks, including the possibility the Palestinians themselves could be accused of war crimes over rocket attacks by the extremist group Hamas on Israeli population centers and other violence against Jewish targets.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take unspecified “retaliatory steps.” In Washington, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said the US was “deeply troubled” by the Palestinians’ “escalatory step.” He said it was “entirely counterproductive and does nothing to further the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a sovereign and independent state.”
At the international court, the Palestinians could seek to have Israeli military or political figures prosecuted for alleged crimes involving settlement construction on occupied lands or actions by the military that cause heavy civilian casualties, for instance.
Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction. And the court has no police force and no authority to go into Israel and arrest suspects. But it could issue arrest warrants that would make it difficult for Israeli officials to travel abroad.
Abbas has been under heavy pressure to take stronger action against Israel amid months of rising tensions over the collapse of US-brokered peace talks last spring, a 50-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza over the summer, a recent spate of deadly Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets, and Israeli restrictions on access to a key Muslim holy site in Jerusalem.
The Palestinians planned to submit the paperwork for joining the ICC to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday afternoon, but postponed it, probably until Friday. Handing over the documents is the last formal step for Palestine to become a member of the ICC, which would happen in about 60 days.
Balkees Jarrah, international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, called the Palestinian move to join the court “an overdue but welcome step toward impartial justice for serious crimes by Israelis and Palestinians alike. This move by Ramallah sends a strong message that the days of near total impunity that have characterized this conflict could be ending.”
