PA slams Netanyahu's attacks on ICC

The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Foreign Ministry yesterday condemned recent attacks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its decision to investigate “war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories”.

On Sunday, Netanyahu accused the ICC of “pure anti-Semitism”. “New edicts are being cast against the Jewish people – anti-Semitic edicts by the International Criminal Court telling us that we, the Jews standing here next to this wall … in this city, in this country, have no right to live here and that by doing so, we are committing a war crime,” he said.

“Netanyahu is continuing to launch absurd justifications and to refer to outdated concepts in his attacks against the ICC,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry slammed what it described as the “Israeli occupation and its settlers’ crimes against the Palestinian people, land, property, sanctities and homes.” It noted that Netanyahu’s criticism was indicating his “dogmatic insistence on these crimes”.

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The PA ministry went on to accuse US President Donald Trump of “covering up for the Israeli occupation crimes and its illegal settlements.”

On Friday, The Hague-based ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said she would launch a full investigation into alleged war crimes in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip as soon as the court’s jurisdiction had been established.

Israel captured those areas in the 1967 Middle East war and withdrew troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005.