The Hague – Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki on Tuesday submitted a request asking the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged human rights violations linked to Israeli settlement policies
Maliki submitted a so-called “referral” giving the prosecutor at the Hague-based court the legal basis to move beyond a preliminary inquiry her office started in January 2015.
The International Criminal Court has the authority to hear cases of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the 123 countries that have signed up to it.
Israel has not joined the court, but because the Palestinians have, Israelis could be targeted for crimes committed on Palestinian lands.
The court’s prosecutors launched an initial investigation into allegations against Israel when the Palestinians first joined the court in 2015.
Tuesday’s referral allows that investigation to proceed to the next stage of a full investigation, without waiting for a judge to give approval.
Maliki said the request would give prosecutors the authority to investigate alleged crimes starting in 2014 and beyond, including last week’s deaths during protests in Gaza.
“Through judicial referral we want…the office of the prosecutor to open without delay an investigation into all crimes,” he told journalists after meeting with chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. “Further delaying justice for Palestinian victims is also tantamount to denial of justice.”
NAN reports that the Palestinian Authority became a member of the ICC in January 2015 after the failure of negotiations to get a UN timetable for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories in the West Bank.
A few days later, at the request of Ramallah, the Prosecutor opened a preliminary examination (first step before the possible opening of a formal investigation) on crimes committed since June 2014 in Gaza and the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.
This preliminary examination has been under way for more than three years.
The Arab League has also called on the ICC to go after the perpetrators of crimes committed in Gaza.
Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned what he called Israeli “massacres”, saying they appeared to be war crimes and urging the Court to intervene.
At the same time, during a UN Security Council meeting in New York, Palestinian delegate Riyad Mansour called for an immediate end to the “odious massacre committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip” and called for an independent UN inquiry.
This echoes a call by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in March, but the idea is opposed by Israel’s traditional ally the U. S..
Some dozen countries support the launch of an independent probe.