Palestinians Prepare to Seek War Crimes Charges Against Israel

By DIAA HADID and SOMINI SENGUPTA, JUNE 24, 2015, Source

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinians on Wednesday prepared to submit to the International Criminal Court what they called evidence of Israeli war crimes, a move that will saddle the beleaguered, overstretched court with a new and potentially long-running headache.

The effort is part of the Palestinians’ campaign to punish Israel in the international arena and to advance their push for a state. It signals Palestinian defiance against Israeli threats of retaliation and underscores the breakdown of peace talks.

It comes on the heels of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry report released on Monday, which found that both Israel and Palestinian militants might have committed war crimes during last summer’s 50-day conflict in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians are likely to incorporate parts of the 217-page report into the files they submit Thursday to the court, based at The Hague.

The Palestinian foreign minister, Riad al-Malki, is to give the files to the chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.

The files are expected to mostly contain information already in the public record and are unlikely to have any immediate impact. The documents are meant to help Ms. Bensouda continue the preliminary examination that she began in January after the Palestinians moved to join the court. The move gives her the authority to look into crimes that occurred on Palestinian land since last July, when the war in Gaza began between fighters for Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the territory, and Israel. Ms. Bensouda has yet to open an official investigation, and any indictment, which international court judges must approve, is a long way off.

The Palestinian case presents a delicate dilemma for the international court as well, both legal and political. Because Israel has said it will not cooperate with any investigation, the prosecutor could, in turn, be accused of being one-sided.

It comes at a time when the court is struggling to maintain its own credibility. It has no capacity to enforce its judgments, depending instead on governments around the world to do so. That is why it has not been able to secure the arrest of Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been indicted on charges of genocide, or most others it has charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The court has won very few convictions. And it has been accused of unfairly targeting Africans, a charge the prosecutor, who is from Gambia, has vigorously rebutted.

The Palestinians could offer the court a chance to show that it is able to go after some of the most powerful people in the world, including Israelis, if necessary. On the other hand, the Palestinian case is likely to engender the most vigorous resistance, including from the United States, said Mark Ellis, president of the International Bar Association. Joining the international court represents perhaps the sharpest pressure point on Israel, which is not a member of the court and disputes the notion that it should face charges in an international tribunal.

“The court is going to be asked to deal with the most complicated conflict we have seen,” he said. “I think that’s a big ask for the court.”

Israel’s most important ally, the United States, has already said it is unhelpful for the Palestinians to take “unilateral” moves.

And it places other supporters of the court, particularly Europeans, in a tough spot. Should any Israelis face indictment, every country that is a member of the International Criminal Court, including Israeli allies like Germany, France and Britain, would be legally obliged to arrest them if they step onto members’ territory.

Israeli officials this week rebuffed French overtures to restart peace talks with the backing of a United Nations Security Council resolution. No such draft is likely to come up in the Council anytime soon.

Israeli officials maintain that their own justice system is sufficient to investigate its military’s actions. It has released its own updates of investigations into attacks in the Gaza war.

Still, the United Nations report said Israeli forces in Gaza acted with “impunity” and described Israel as having a “lamentable track record in holding wrongdoers accountable.” The court is authorized to take on cases in which a state is unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute in its own courts.

An Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said: “We see this as a hostile move. The I.C.C. was established to deal with cases where there is no functioning legal system. And that obviously is not the case when dealing with Israel.”

The files that the Palestinians will hand over name individual Israelis accused of committing crimes, the Palestine Liberation Organization said in a statement. The Palestinian officials would not name the Israelis they identified. The files will cover the period from April 2014 to April 2015, officials said.

“All violations were documented in this regard, including annexation, settlement displacement, house demolition and preventing Palestinians from using their lands,” said Walid Assaf, the head of a committee that monitors Israeli settlement activity for the Palestine Liberation Organization, speaking on Palestinian radio on Wednesday. “We are talking about 1,856 violations, in addition to violations by settlers under the army protection and support.”

Other documents cover the 50-day war with Hamas last summer. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed in that conflict, the homes of tens of thousands were destroyed, and hospitals and other facilities were badly damaged by bombing and shelling.

To punish Palestinians for joining the court, Israel withheld millions of dollars in tax revenue that was meant to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, causing sharp budget shortfalls.

It is unlikely that the United States, which provides the Palestinian Authority with about $400 million annually, will take any immediate steps. Its most immediate difficulty with Israel is generated not by the Palestinian move, but by a nuclear deal it is negotiating with Iran, which has infuriated the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

“Obama’s priority is to sell the Iranian agreement, full stop,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East adviser to Democratic and Republican administrations, “not to open another front with Congress and Israel over the I.C.C.”

Diaa Hadid reported from Ramallah, and Somini Sengupta from the United Nations. Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Paris, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.

While this is one of the movements ahead, it will take years to arrive at a decision. Also, enforcement of the rulings will have negligible results.