Jedi Ahronot’s news portal reported Thursday that Israel does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories in 1967.
Jerusalem has until Friday to respond to a letter from International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to Israel in early March to announce the opening of a formal investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
In its response, Israel will not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction over Operation Powerful Rocks of 2014, the clashes along the Gaza border in 2018, and potential “war crimes” due to construction work in the West Bank / West Coast, at Thursday’s meeting in Jerusalem.
The Hague court has no jurisdiction to investigate the state’s actions and Israel will not cooperate in the investigation, according to determined Israeli leaders participating in the meeting, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Bani Ganz, Education Minister Yoav Galant, and Energy Prime Minister Yuval Steinitz Meir Ben Sebt, Chairman of the Council National security and others are invited.
Israel’s position is based on the decision of the International Criminal Court, according to its own rules, in matters affecting its member states and not interfering in the affairs of states whose judiciary itself is able to prosecute crimes against humanity.
Israel has referred to its independent judiciary, which is able to bring to justice soldiers who commit potential war crimes. In addition, Israel is not a member of the International Criminal Court.
In addition, although the Palestinian Authority (PH) has signed the Statute of the International Criminal Court (the so-called Rome Statute), the Israeli legal opinion states that the Palestinian Authority is not a state and therefore cannot legally be a member of the court. . Previously, the fact that F.D.
The Jerusalem argument has been accepted by eight member states: Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Brazil, Uganda, Austria, Australia and Canada.
If, in response, Israel undertakes to investigate the events in question on its own initiative, on the one hand it excludes cases from the Hague investigations, and on the other hand, it recognizes the jurisdiction of the ICC and reports on the status of its own investigations every six months.
In addition to Netanyahu, among the weak executives accused of “war crimes” are Benny Ganz, who was the IDF chief of staff in 2014, and hundreds of current and retired Israeli military officers.
Jerusalem does not usually cooperate with the International Criminal Court, so it was not clear whether the government would respond at all to the letter from The Hague. (After MTI)