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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-court-rules-favor-sweeping-impunity">electronicintifada.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israeli court rules in favor of sweeping impunity</h1>
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<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy">Maureen Clare Murphy</a></span> -
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">11 July 2022</span></span> </p>
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<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2022-07/main_image44226_vftrlqoxzw.jpg?itok=iYrqPcqh×tamp=1657311916" alt="" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="457" height="304"></span><p><font size="1">Palestinians carry an injured protester during a Great March of Return protest along the Gaza-Israel boundary in October 2019.</font></p>
<font size="1"><span>ActiveStills</span></font><p>Israel’s high court ruled last week in favor of sweeping immunity for the state for war crimes perpetrated in Gaza.</p>
<p>Palestinian human rights groups say that the ruling underscores the
urgent need for an immediate International Criminal Court investigation.</p>
<p>Adalah, a Palestinian human rights group, <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10651">stated</a>
that the “ruling means that all Gaza residents are banned from any
redress and remedy in Israel, regardless of the circumstances, during
‘acts of war’ or otherwise.”</p>
<p>The high court ruling is in response to an appeal demanding that
Israel pay compensation for the serious injury of Attiya Nabaheen, <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9680">who had just turned 15</a> when he was shot by Israeli forces in his family’s front yard while returning home from school in Gaza in November 2014.</p>
<p>Nabaheen was paralyzed as a result of his injuries.</p>
<p>Adalah and Al Mezan, another human rights group, had appealed to the
court to challenge a law enacted in 2012 stipulating that residents of
the Gaza Strip are ineligible for compensation from Israel because it
was declared “enemy territory” in 2007.</p>
<p>A lower court used that law to throw out Nabaheen’s effort to receive compensation from Israel for his injuries.</p>
<p>The high court stated that the law is consistent with international
law and that in any case, Israel’s parliament “has the power to override
the rules of international law.”</p>
<p>Adalah and Al Mezan stated in response that the high court ruling
“justifies the immediate initiation of an [International Criminal Court]
investigation, as it deprives Palestinian civilian victims of war
crimes committed by Israel of any legal remedy.”</p>
<p>The groups add that “there is no clearer evidence of the fact that
the Israeli legal system is committed to the legitimization of war
crimes and to assisting the military in its efforts by denying all legal
remedies to victims.”</p>
<p>An independent UN probe into Israel’s use of lethal force against
Great March of Return protesters in 2018 examined Nabaheen’s case and
its implications for other Gaza residents.</p>
<p>The ruling denies “the main avenue to fulfill their right to
‘effective legal remedy’ from Israel that is guaranteed to them under
international law,” the UN investigators stated. “The importance of this
ruling is thus difficult to overstate.”</p>
<p>In an attempt to justify the use of lethal force against unarmed
protesters, Israel invented a baseless new paradigm of international law
that categorized the Great March of Return as part of its armed
conflict with Hamas, the Palestinian resistance and political
organization that oversees Gaza’s internal affairs.</p>
<p>The Israeli military’s directives stipulate that a criminal
investigation must be opened immediately following the death of a
Palestinian outside combat activity.</p>
<p>By categorizing the Great March of Return as part of its armed
conflict with Hamas, even though demonstrators were unarmed, Israel
created a separate legal framework for handling complaints related to
the protests.</p>
<h2>Legal loophole</h2>
<p>This major legal loophole is also being applied regarding Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank.</p>
<p>Israel’s military advocate general stated that the killing of Al
Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh while she was covering an army
raid in Jenin during May was a <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/amid-outrage-over-journalists-killing-us-vows-put-israel-first">“combat event”</a> and therefore no soldier is likely to face criminal charges.</p>
<p>Israel has all but admitted that one of its soldiers killed Abu Akleh
and last week the US State Department announced that the journalist was
“likely” killed by gunfire from Israeli troops.</p>
<p>Both Israel and the US are appearing to treat Abu Akleh’s killing as
an operational error rather than a suspected extrajudicial execution.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/omar-karmi/israeli-impunity-intact-despite-abu-akleh-killing">Several independent investigations</a>
by human rights groups and international media outlets have also
concluded that Abu Akleh was most likely killed by Israeli fire.</p>
<p>CNN’s forensic investigation, citing explosive weapons expert Chris
Cobb-Smith, notes that “Abu Akleh was killed in discrete shots.”</p>
<p>Cobb-Smith said that “the number of strike marks on the tree where
[Abu Akleh] was standing proves this wasn’t a random shot, she was
targeted.”</p>
<p>Last Friday, Abu Akleh’s family issued a letter to US President Joe
Biden, who is scheduled to visit Israel and the West Bank next week, and
accused his administration of “skulking toward the erasure of any
wrongdoing by Israeli forces.”</p>
<p>The US does not appear to be pressing Israel for a criminal
investigation, with State Department spokesperson Ned Price saying
during a <a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-july-5-2022/">press briefing</a> last Tuesday that “we are not trying to be prescriptive about this.”</p>
<p>For the Biden administration, it seems, accountability means
encouraging “steps to safeguard civilians and non-combatants in a combat
zone.”</p>
<p>Price added that the Israeli military “is in a position to consider
steps to see to it that something like this can’t happen again.”</p>
<p>The Abu Akleh family said on Friday that “we are incredulous that
such an expectation would be the pinnacle of your administration’s
response.”
</p>
The family pointed to unconditional US military aid to Israel and “near
absolute diplomatic support to shield Israeli officials from
accountability.”
<p>The Abu Akleh family called on Biden to meet with them during his
upcoming visit and provide the information gathered by his
administration regarding the journalist’s killing.</p>
<p>The family told the president of its “grief, outrage and sense of
betrayal” at his determined efforts to ensure “the erasure of any
wrongdoing by Israeli forces.”</p>
<p>“We expect the Biden administration [to] support our efforts to push
for accountability and justice … wherever they take us,” the family
stated.</p>
<h2>International Criminal Court</h2>
<p>One such venue is the International Criminal Court, which has been
approached about the killing of Abu Akleh by both the Palestinian
Authority and Al Jazeera. The US has partnered with Israel in trying to
undermine The Hague’s investigation in Palestine.</p>
<p>The ICC privileges a country’s internal investigations, where they exist.</p>
<p>The recent Israeli court ruling rejecting compensation for Attiya
Nabaheen and the cover up of responsibility for the killing of Shireen
Abu Akleh should dispel any remaining doubt over what Israel’s legal
system is designed to serve.</p>
<p>But it is doubtful that the ICC will serve as a court of last resort for Palestinians with any sense of urgency.</p>
<p>While it accumulates resources for an expedited investigation in
Ukraine, with voluntary contributions for that probe risking the court’s
supposed independence, the Palestine investigation appears to be left
to <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/will-icc-help-israel-get-away-shireen-abu-aklehs-murder/35556">die on the vine</a>.</p>
<p>The silence over Palestine and other investigations that don’t have
the backing of powerful states “may have weakened the court’s deterrent
effect, and has left a void which has been filled with political attacks
on the court’s work, as well as attacks on human rights defenders,”
Amnesty International recently <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/07/the-icc-at-20-double-standards-have-no-place-in-international-justice/">stated</a>.</p>
<p>Without an equally robust response to the crises in Palestine and
Afghanistan, as well as other places, the office of the ICC prosecutor
may be viewed as “just the legal arm of NATO,” as human rights lawyer
Reed Brody <a href="https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/102866-icc-20-elusive-success-double-standards-ukraine-moment.html">recently put it</a>.</p>
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