[News] Abbas runs out of excuses for inaction on Israel’s war crimes

[Anti-Imperialist News]

(Ismael Mohamad / United Press International)


  Abbas runs out of excuses for inaction on Israel’s war crimes

Submitted by Jalal Abukhater on Wed, 07/30/2014 - 13:39
*http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jalal-abukhater/abbas-runs-out-excuses-inaction-israels-war-crimes*

Israel’s latest attack 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gazaunderattack> on Gaza 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza> has now entered its fourth 
week; the number of Palestinians killed is nearing 
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/gaza-un-school-hit-201473041918975321.html> 
1,300. And the Palestinian Authority 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority> still refuses 
to take any real action.

During a meeting in Ramallah 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ramallah> this week, Mahmoud Abbas 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mahmoud-abbas>, the PA’s president, 
said <http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=716743>, “The ugly and 
grotesque Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people must be 
stopped.” He added, “We ask the world to support us in seeking justice, 
and from now on we will study all our options to reach this purpose.”

That is typical talk from the PA. For years now, the authority has been 
studying “all our options” — without holding Israel to account.


    Urgency

Abbas’ statement isn’t the only thing being discussed in the Palestinian 
media. Another popular news item relates to how the PA is asking 
<http://origin.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-asked-to-boost-geneva-conventions-in-gaza/40511662> 
Switzerland to convene an international conference on respecting 
international law. All signatories of the Geneva conventions would be 
invited.

At first glance, this may appear to be an important initiative. Yet it 
is really a symbolic step, rather than something that would seriously 
challenge Israel’s impunity <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/impunity>.

With the urgency of the situation in Gaza, the PA should be thinking 
about more than symbolic gestures.

Given that Abbas has vowed 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jalal-abukhater/pa-parrots-israeli-claims-gaza-attack> 
to fight Israel by means of international law, it is surely time that 
the PA seeks immediate access to the International Criminal Court 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-criminal-court> so 
that Israel can be prosecuted for war crimes.


    Israel is worried

There are indications that the Israeli establishment is worried by the 
prospect of the PA putting the occupied West Bank 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/west-bank> and Gaza under the ICC’s 
jurisdiction.

A recent article 
<http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118751/how-israel-palestine-peace-deal-died> 
in /The New Republic/ suggests the anxiety is quite real. Based on 
interviews with participants in the “peace” talks chaired by John Kerry 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/john-kerry>, the US secretary of 
state, it recounts how Benjamin Netanyahu 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu> “froze” when an 
aide told him that Abbas had “just signed 15 UN conventions.”

The reason for the Israeli prime minister’s anxiety, according to /The 
New Republic/, was that he feared the Rome Statute of the ICC was one of 
them.


    Nothing to lose

Since “Palestine” was given “observer state status” by the UN in 2012, 
the PA has been entitled to ratify the Rome Statute. Why hasn’t it done 
so yet?

Ratification would allow the PA to sue Israel for war crimes committed 
after July 2002, when the ICC formally came into effect.

According to Human Rights Watch 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/human-rights-watch>, the PA could 
<http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/08/palestine-go-international-criminal-court> 
submit a declaration accepting the court’s jurisdiction starting from 
any date over the past twelve years.

Saleem al-Saqqa, the PA’s justice minister, and Ismail Jabr, the Gaza 
court public prosecutor, filed a complaint against Israel to the ICC 
last week. Yet this step could prove futile, considering that the ICC 
does not yet have any jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank.

An Associated Press article 
<http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/gaza-officials-accuse-israel-war-crimes-icc-24712658> 
reminds us that Abbas gave several governments an assurance in 2012 that 
he would not seek access to the ICC.

In the two years since then, the “peace process” has failed utterly. 
Israel has entrenched the occupation by expanding its settlements 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-settlements> in the West 
Bank. The people of Gaza are being subjected to an all-out attack for 
the third time in less than six years.

The PA has nothing to lose, then, by ratifying the Rome Statute. There 
is no “peace process” to value and protect.

With his hostility to the Palestinian “national unity government 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/national-unity-government>” and the 
influence wielded by bellicose, right-wing Israeli politicians over his 
government, the likelihood of Netanyahu rushing back to negotiations 
with Abbas is slim.

Ensuring that Israel is prosecuted has never been more vital. The PA has 
ran out of excuses for its inaction.

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