Israeli media sources claim that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has insisted that the government in Israel should cooperate with it by answering a series of questions regarding last year’s offensive against the people of the Gaza Strip. The legal body has threatened that it will have no choice but to adopt the Palestinian narrative on the issue if Israel does not cooperate, reported Israel HaYom on Thursday.
The newspaper said that the Israeli government refuses to cooperate with the ICC on the basis that it does not believe the Palestinians to be eligible to make a complaint through the court. Nor, it claims, is the court authorised “to hold accountable the state that monitors itself” at its own discretion. Israel HaYom added that Israeli officials claim that the Palestinians are using the ICC to “delegitimise” the state, as with other diplomatic steps at the UN and its institutions.
According to the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, “If Israel does not cooperate with us in our investigation into the recent war on the Gaza Strip, the investigation will be carried out based on the materials that were made available.” Such “materials” are those provided by the Palestinians.
“Israel and other countries like the United States and Canada believe that the Palestinians are not authorised to join the international court,” responded one Israeli official, “because Palestine is not a state. We hope that the court will not allow the exploitation of its authorities negatively through looking into a case that has no legal basis, which would affect its credibility and the chances of a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians.” The UN, of course, recognised Palestine as a state in 2012 and today 135 member countries of the international organisation do likewise. The US, Canadian and Israeli view is thus a minority opinion.
The Israeli official denounced the “lack of commitment” by the chief prosecutor to the principles of professionalism, independence and impartiality. “She has chosen to deal with these issues through the media by making statements that do not add anything to the credibility of the on-going work in her office,” he explained.