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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/evidence-israeli-apartheid-pillage-and-murder-handed-hague-court">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/evidence-israeli-apartheid-pillage-and-murder-handed-hague-court</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Evidence of Israeli apartheid, pillage and
murder handed to Hague court</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2017-09-21T23:16:30+00:00">21 September 2017</span></span>
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<p>Four Palestinian human rights organizations on
Wednesday <a
href="http://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/topics/human-rights-defenders/1140-palestinian-human-rights-organisations-submit-evidence-to-the-icc-prosecutor-on-crimes-committed-in-west-bankPalestinian">handed
700 pages of evidence</a> of Israeli war crimes and
crimes against humanity to the prosecutor of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-criminal-court">International
Criminal Court</a>.</p>
<p>This comes as two Palestinian communities in the West
Bank face imminent, total Israeli destruction.</p>
<p>The crimes detailed in the dossier include
persecution, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/landmark-un-report-backs-israel-boycott">apartheid</a>,
the extensive theft, destruction and pillage of
Palestinian property and evidence of the “wilful
killing and murder” of hundreds of Palestinians since
2014.</p>
<p>Shawan Jabarin, director of the human rights group
Al-Haq, said the dossier “provides a compelling and
reasonable basis” for the prosecutor to open an
investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes
against humanity by Israel in the occupied West Bank,
including East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>This is the fourth dossier the human rights groups
have provided the court. While it focuses on the West
Bank, the previous files related to crimes committed
by senior Israeli civilian and military officials
during the 2014 attack on Gaza.</p>
<h2>Death threats and harassment</h2>
<p>Jabarin handed the file to the court in The Hague
along with colleague Nada Kiswanson.</p>
<p>Kiswanson and other human rights investigators
affiliated with Al-Haq have been the targets of a
long-running campaign of harassment and death threats
that a veteran Israeli analyst has <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-using-black-ops-against-bds-says-veteran-analyst">tied</a>
to Israeli government “black ops.”</p>
<p>Al-Haq believes the threats are tied to Kiswanson’s
work preparing the dossiers for the international
court. The government of the Netherlands, where the
court is based, has <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/threats-against-palestinian-groups-may-damage-netherlands-government-says">said</a>
that a criminal investigation has been opened into the
threats.</p>
<h2>“Israeli Jewish domination”</h2>
<p>According to a statement from Al-Haq, the latest file
“addresses Israel’s endeavor to enlarge its territory
and ensure Israeli Jewish domination therein by
altering the demographic composition of the occupied
Palestinian territory.”</p>
<p>Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for
Human Rights, said that Israel’s transfer of settlers
into occupied Palestinian land “constitutes a unique
war crime in that is coupled with the confiscation of
massive tracts of Palestinian land, the extensive
destruction of Palestinian property and the tearing
apart of the Palestinian social fabric and way of
life.”</p>
<p>Although Israel’s violations in the occupied West
Bank can be looked at separately from those in Gaza,
Issam Younis, director of the Al Mezan Center for
Human Rights, explained how they are linked: “The
isolation of Gaza, in addition to the regular,
full-scale military assaults, ultimately enables
Israel to consolidate its control over the whole
occupied Palestinian territory and deny Palestinians
their internationally recognized right to
self-determination.”</p>
<h2>Pressure</h2>
<p>Israel’s conduct during the 2014 Gaza war, as well as
allegations of numerous crimes in the West Bank, are
currently the subject of a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/hague-prosecutor-updates-palestine-war-crimes-probe">preliminary
examination</a> by the Hague prosecutors.</p>
<p>They must decide <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/icc-preliminary-probe-palestine-still-long-way-war-crimes-trials">whether
to open a full investigation</a>, which could lead
to formal indictments of Israeli officials and
military personnel.</p>
<p>There is no time limit on the preliminary
examination, and the prosecutors are under constant
pressure from Israel and the United States to let
Israel off the hook. They have every incentive to sit
on their hands.</p>
<h2>Sham self-investigations</h2>
<p>Last month, two human rights groups <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/child-footballers-killed-israel-get-no-justice">concluded</a>
that Israel’s own system for investigating alleged
crimes against Palestinians by its forces is a sham.</p>
<p>Hundreds of cases, including the notorious killings
of four boys playing football on a beach in July 2014,
have not resulted in any accountability for the
perpetrators.</p>
<p>In May 2016, B’Tselem <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/we-will-no-longer-be-fig-leaf-occupation-says-btselem">announced
it would no longer cooperate</a> with Israeli
military investigations of killings and other attacks
on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.</p>
<p>“We will no longer aid a system that whitewashes
investigations and serves as a fig leaf for the
occupation,” the Israeli human rights group’s director
explained.</p>
<p>When it comes to crimes like apartheid and settler
colonization, Israel would obviously do nothing to
investigate and punish itself – since these crimes are
planned and executed by the state itself.</p>
<p>But even in situations where Israel recognizes – at
least on paper – that a certain act is a crime, there
has been zero accountability.</p>
<p>This should be an important factor in the
prosecutors’ decisions because according to its <a
href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf">founding
statute</a>, the International Criminal Court only
steps in when national judicial authorities are <a
href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/20BB4494-70F9-4698-8E30-907F631453ED/281984/complementarity.pdf">unwilling
or unable to carry out genuine proceedings</a>.</p>
<h2>Villages face destruction</h2>
<p>Whether the court acts is not just a matter of
accounting for the past, but of stopping ongoing
crimes.</p>
<p>This month, B’Tselem <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20170905_susiya_and_khan_al_ahmar_demolition_threat">warned</a>
top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, defense minister Avigdor Lieberman and the
military chief of staff, that they would be personally
liable for war crimes if they proceed with the
apparently imminent destruction of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/khan-al-ahmar">Khan
al-Ahmar</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/susiya">Susiya</a>,
two communities in the West Bank.</p>
<p>“The demolition of entire communities in the occupied
territories is virtually unprecedented since 1967,”
B’Tselem said.</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/robert-piper">Robert
Piper</a>, the top UN humanitarian aid official in
Palestine, tweeted, “All eyes on the Bedouin community
of Khan al-Ahmar at risk of forcible transfers by
Israeli authorities over the coming days.”</p>
<p>He inadvertently identified a problem in which the UN
plays a major part: the so-called international
community stands on the sidelines and just watches as
Israel commits crimes daily.</p>
<p>It is obvious that Israel will never bring itself to
justice and that it is up to the International
Criminal Court to act. It has mountains of evidence in
its hands. The question is whether it has the
independence and the will to do its job.</p>
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