JERUSALEM (PA) – The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday launched an investigation into alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories, drawing the court’s attention to Israeli military action and the construction of settlements on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
The decision dealt an embarrassing blow to the Israeli government, which conducted aggressive public relations and a behind-the-scenes diplomatic campaign to block the investigation. It also raised the possibility of issuing arrest warrants against Israeli officials suspected of war crimes, which makes traveling abroad potentially risky.
“The state of Israel is under attack tonight,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a videotaped statement. “The biased international court in The Hague has made a decision that is the essence of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy.”
“I promise we will fight for the truth until we overturn this outrageous decision,” he said.
The decision taken by Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor out of court, was expected since last month the court ruled that it had jurisdiction over the case. A preliminary investigation by Bensouda in 2019 found a “reasonable basis” to open a war crimes case.
In a statement, Bensouda said the investigation would look at “offenses in the jurisdiction of the court that were allegedly committed” starting June 13, 2014. She said the investigation would be conducted “independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favor.” “This task will now be handed over to Karim Khan, the British lawyer who will become the chief prosecutor of the court in June.
Wednesday’s decision draws the court’s attention to two key Israeli policies in recent years: its repeated military operations against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, highlighted by a devastating war in 2014, and the expansion of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Experts say Israel could be particularly vulnerable to prosecution for its settlement policies.
Although the Palestinians do not have an independent state, they were granted non-member observer status at the UN General Assembly in 2012, allowing them to join international organizations such as the ICC. Since joining the court in 2015, they have pressured an investigation into war crimes against Israel. Israel, which is not a member of the court, said it has no jurisdiction because Palestine is not a sovereign state.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers autonomous areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, welcomed Wednesday’s move.
“This long-awaited step serves Palestine’s vigorous effort to achieve justice and accountability as indispensable bases for peace,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said.
The Palestinians chose June 2014 as the start of the investigation to coincide with the period leading up to Israel’s devastating war in Gaza that summer.
During the fighting, more than 2,200 Palestinians, including nearly 1,500 civilians, were killed by Israeli fire, according to UN estimates. At least 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side, according to Israeli figures.
Israel has claimed to be waging a self-defense war against non-stop rocket fire against its cities. Hamas leaders, Islamic militants in Gaza, accuse the large number of civilian deaths because the group launched attacks in residential areas, attracting Israeli retaliation.
Bensouda also said that his investigation will analyze the actions of Hamas, which fired missiles without discrimination in Israel during the 2014 war.
However, in Gaza, Hamas welcomed the launch of the investigation and called on Bensouda to “resist any pressure” that could reduce the process.
“This is a step forward in enforcing justice, punishing the occupation and doing justice to the Palestinian people,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told the Associated Press. He said he was confident that rocket attacks on Israeli cities were legitimate under international law.
The ICC is intended to serve as a court of last resort when countries’ own judicial systems are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute war crimes.
Israel does not recognize its authority, saying it has a world-class independent judiciary. But Palestinians and human rights groups say Israel is incapable of investigating itself and has a history of whitewashing military crimes.
After the war, the army opened dozens of investigations into the conduct of troops. Although there were only a handful of convictions on minor charges, this might be enough for the court, which dropped a similar case. against British troops in Iraq last year as British authorities investigated.
Referring to Israel’s justice system, Bensouda said the investigation would “allow for a continuous assessment of domestic action in accordance with the principle of complementarity”.
Experts have warned that Israel may find it harder to defend its settlement policies in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Settlements are widely regarded as illegal on the basis of the principle of the Geneva Convention that an occupying power is prohibited from transferring its population to war-torn territories. Population transfers are listed as a war crime in the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war and believes the West Bank disputes the territory. But its positions are not recognized internationally and most of the world considers both areas occupied territories.
Today, about 700,000 settlers live in the two areas, which the Palestinians are demanding, along with Gaza, for a future state. Israel says the fate of these areas should be resolved in the negotiations and that the involvement of the ICC will remove the Palestinians from the negotiating table.
Bensouda said the priorities in the investigation will be “determined in a timely manner” based on constraints, including the coronavirus pandemic, limited resources and the existing workload of prosecutors.
While Wednesday’s decision poses no immediate threat to Israel, the court has the authority to quietly issue arrest warrants for those suspected of crimes.
Netanyahu was prime minister during the 2014 Gaza war and was a strong settlement lawyer. His defense minister, Benny Gantz, was Israel’s military commander during the war. The Israeli press said that Israel is in contact with allies who are members of the ICC to receive warnings about potential arrest warrants against its citizens.
In his statement, Netanyahu said Israel is unjustly identified. He accused the court of “closing its eyes to Iran, Syria and other dictatorships that commit real war crimes.”
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said “we strongly oppose and are disappointed with the ICC prosecutor’s announcement of an investigation into the Palestinian situation.”
“We will continue to support our strong commitment to Israel and its security, including through opposing actions aimed at targeting Israel unfairly,” Price told reporters in Washington.
International human rights groups have praised the decision as a step towards justice for Israeli and Palestinian victims.
“The crowded court case should not discourage the prosecution from prosecuting cases against anyone who is credibly involved in such crimes,” said Balkees Jarrah, associate director of international justice at Human Rights Watch.
“ICC member states should be ready to fiercely protect the work of the court from any political pressure,” she said.
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Corder reported from The Hague, the Netherlands. The Akram tariffs in Gaza City, the Gaza Strip, have contributed.