JERUSALEM (AP) – The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court launched on Wednesday an investigation into alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories, turning the court’s focus to Israeli military actions and the construction of settlements on land captured in the 1967 war in the Middle East.
The decision was an embarrassing blow to the Israeli government, which conducted an aggressive public relations and behind-the-scenes diplomatic campaign to block the investigation. It also raised the possibility that arrest warrants could be issued against Israeli officials suspected of war crimes, making it potentially risky to travel abroad.
“The state of Israel is under attack tonight,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a videotaped statement. “The biased international tribunal in The Hague has taken a decision that is the essence of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy.”
“I promise that we will fight for the truth until we overturn this scandalous decision,” he said.
The decision by Fatou Bensouda, the outgoing prosecutor of the court, was expected since the court determined last month that she had jurisdiction over the case. A preliminary investigation by Bensouda in 2019 found a “reasonable basis” for opening a war crimes case.
In a statement, Bensouda said the investigation will look at “crimes within the jurisdiction of the court that were allegedly committed” since June 13, 2014. She said the investigation will be conducted “independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favor. ” That 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 ruling shifts the court’s focus to two major Israeli policies in recent years: its repeated military operations against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, highlighted by a devastating war in 2014, and its expansion of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank. Experts say Israel may be especially vulnerable to prosecution for its settlement policies.
Although Palestinians do not have an independent state, they were granted non-member observer status at the UN General Assembly in 2012, which allowed them to join international organizations such as the ICC. Since joining the court in 2015, they have pushed for an investigation of 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,” said the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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.
In the conflict, 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 data.
Israel argued that it waged a war of self-defense against the continued launch of rockets against its cities. He blames Hamas’s Islamic Islamic rulers in Gaza for the high number of civilians killed because the group launched attacks on residential areas, drawing Israeli retaliation.
Bensouda also said his investigation would investigate the actions of Hamas, which fired rockets indiscriminately at Israel during the 2014 war.
Even so, in Gaza, Hamas welcomed the start of the investigation and asked Bensouda to “resist any pressure” that could undermine the process.
“This is a step forward to implement justice, punish the occupation and do 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 should 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 judicial system. But Palestinians and human rights groups say Israel is unable to self-investigate and has a history of covering up military crimes.
After the war, the military opened dozens of investigations into the conduct of the troops. Although there were only a handful of convictions on minor charges, that could be enough for the court, which dismissed a similar case against British troops in Iraq last year because British authorities investigated.
In a reference to Israel’s justice system, Bensouda said the investigation “will allow for a continuous assessment of actions taken at the domestic level according to the principle of complementarity”.
Experts warned that Israel may have a harder time defending its settlement policies in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The settlements are widely seen as illegal based on the Geneva Convention’s principle that an occupying power is prohibited from transferring its population to territories captured in the war. Population transfers are listed as a war crime in the founding treaty of the ICC, the Rome Statute.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war and considers the disputed territory in the West Bank. But their positions are not recognized internationally, and most of the world considers both areas to be occupied territories.
Today, about 700,000 settlers live in the two areas, which the Palestinians claim, along with Gaza, for a future state. Israel says the fate of these areas must be resolved in the negotiations and that the ICC’s involvement will keep the Palestinians from the negotiating table.
Bensouda said the priorities for the investigation will be “determined in due time” based on constraints, including the coronavirus pandemic, limited resources and prosecutors’ existing heavy workload.
Although Wednesday’s decision poses no immediate threat to Israel, the court has the authority to quietly issue arrest warrants for people suspected of crimes.
Netanyahu was prime minister during the 2014 Gaza war and has been a strong supporter of the settlements. His defense minister, Benny Gantz, was Israel’s military commander during the war. Israeli media said Israel is in contact with allies who are members of the ICC to receive warnings about possible arrest warrants against its citizens.
In his statement, Netanyahu said that Israel is being unfairly highlighted. He accused the court of “turning a blind eye to Iran, Syria and the other dictatorships that are committing real war crimes”.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that “we are strongly opposed and are disappointed by the ICC prosecutor’s announcement of an investigation into the Palestinian situation”.
“We will continue to defend our strong commitment to Israel and its security, including opposing actions that target Israel unfairly,” Price told reporters in Washington.
International human rights groups praised the decision as a step towards justice for Israeli and Palestinian victims.
“The crowded court case should not prevent the prosecutor’s office from doggedly pursuing cases against anyone incredibly involved in such crimes,” said Balkees Jarrah, associate director of international justice at Human Rights Watch.
“ICC member countries must be ready to fiercely protect the court’s work from any political pressure,” she said.
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Corder reported from The Hague, Holland. Akram Fares in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed.