{"id":4147,"date":"2015-04-01T10:44:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T10:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=4147"},"modified":"2015-04-01T10:44:31","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T10:44:31","slug":"palestine-officially-joins-international-criminal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/palestine-officially-joins-international-criminal-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestine officially joins International Criminal Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ICC\"<\/a>Palestine will raise the stakes in a legal battle with Israel on Wednesday when it joins the International Criminal Court, but any case over alleged crimes in the occupied territories is unlikely to come to trial for some years \u2014 if ever.
\nWith the court swamped with investigations in Africa and prosecutors already struggling to secure convictions, legal experts say they need to be absolutely certain before proceeding with a highly politicized case against Israel.
\nPractical problems will also need to be overcome. As a non-member of the ICC, Israel is under no obligation to cooperate, even if it comes under international pressure to do so.
\nFatou Bensouda, the ICC\u2019s chief prosecutor, opened a preliminary examination in January into alleged crimes committed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. This pro-forma step followed the Palestinians\u2019 acceptance of the court\u2019s jurisdiction on Jan. 1, a prelude to membership on April 1.
\nShe must now decide whether there are grounds to proceed with a full investigation, taking into account issues including whether the court even has jurisdiction.
\nThat analysis can take years \u2014 the ICC previously launched a preliminary examination of a Palestinian case in 2009, only to conclude in April 2012 that it didn\u2019t have jurisdiction.
\nMuch has since changed, principally the granting to Palestine in November 2012 of \u201cnon-member observer status\u201d at the United Nations. This gave it the authority to sign up to the Rome Statute, a 1998 treaty on establishing the ICC.
\nWhile that major legal obstacle has been cleared, the prosecutor still has unlimited time to decide if there are grounds for an investigation, let alone a trial. That said, the Palestinians feel that the momentum is with them and the time is ripe for action.
\n\u201cWe want those most responsible for the most serious crimes to be prosecuted,\u201d a Palestinian official said this week. \u201cThe panic attacks we\u2019ve seen (from Israel) suggest we are not the only ones to take the court seriously.\u201d
\nA 40-member committee of Palestinians has spent the past three months looking at two areas where they believe the Israelis have violated international law: military operations during last year\u2019s war in Gaza and Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967.
\nThe prosecutor may decide that either area is worthy of investigation and that there are grounds to bring charges against specific people.
\nSince its creation in 2002, the ICC has focused on the worst violations of international law: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
\nBut it will eventually add another category of offenses, \u201ccrimes of aggression,\u201d and it is there that the Palestinians may end up having the strongest case.
\nThe Rome Statute defines acts of aggression as \u201cthe use of armed force by a state against the sovereign, territorial integrity or political independence of another state,\u201d which appears to match the situation with Israel and the Palestinians.
\nBut the ICC will not have jurisdiction over crimes of aggression until at least 30 of its 123 members have accepted the definition and the court\u2019s top assembly has voted in favor of it at some point after Jan. 1, 2017.<\/p>\n

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