A spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry described the Palestinians’ move as “a cynical attempt to manipulate and politicise the judicial mechanisms of the ICC”, adding: “We hope the prosecutor will not fall into that trap”.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotofila said earlier this week that the State Department is working around the clock “through diplomatic channels” to prevent the arrival of the fleet in Gaza, and condemned the work of “provocateurs aiming to tarnish the image of Israel” concerning the 2010 Israeli attack on the ship Mavi Marmara, which left 10 Turkish activists dead. The last round of peace talks between the sides broke down in April 2014.
If she deems the reported crimes “grave” and decides the court has proper jurisdiction, she can go before judges at a pretrial tribunal and ask the court for permission to begin a full-fledged investigation, a much more serious matter.
Speaking to the Palestinian al-Shams radio station, Dror Feiler, a Palestine solidarity activist based in Sweden, said that one of the ships had been damaged in what appeared to be an act of “sabotage”. Israel, which has the sad distinction of being the world’s largest exporter of aerial drones, killed 164 Palestinian children in drone strikes during the conflict.
Reporting on the findings of this “independent commission of inquiry”, most Israeli journalists and specialists concluded that it wasn’t as bad as the 2009 Goldstone Report that had likewise accused Israel of war crimes.
Meanwhile on Thursday, Israel released a prominent Hamas leader in the West Bank, the Islamist group said, a year after his arrest along with hundreds of others following the killing of three Israeli teenagers. The prosecutors will also visit Israel.
Even if the ICC ultimately prosecutes those responsible for war crimes in Gaza, for it to be truly credible it still needs to be universally ratified.
Israel has been an outspoken critic of the ICC, saying the Palestinian Authority is not a state and should never have been admitted as an ICC member.
The likelihood that the United Nations Security Council will act on the latest United Nations report is negligible given that the USA has said the UNSC should not discuss the report.
The Palestinian Authority joined the worldwide court this year.
Nineteen House Democrats signed a letter urging the Obama administration to make Israel’s treatment of imprisoned Palestinian minors a priority in the U.S.-Israel relationship.
JNS.org – A ship of pro-Palestinian activists, including an Israeli-Arab member of the Knesset, set sail for the Gaza Strip on Friday in an attempt to breach the naval blockade of the coastal territory.
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This story has been edited from the source material.
