ICC CAN IMMEDIATELY PROBE ISRAEL CRIMES: PALESTINIAN UN ENVOY

Al-Quds, 19 Rabiul Awwal 1436/10 January 2015 (MINA) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) can immediately start examining Israeli war crimes against Palestinians should it choose to conduct the probe, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations says.

Riyadh Mansour said on Thursday that Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor of the ICC, does not need to wait for Palestine’s formal membership in the ICC on April 1, Press Tv quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

He said Palestine’s formal acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction authorizes the prosecutor to take required measures to examine Israel’s war crimes.

“It is within her discretion that she can do that,” Mansour said.

Fadi El Abdallah, a spokesman for the ICC in The Hague, the Netherlands, also confirmed that the prosecutor can begin a “preliminary examination” of crimes in the Palestinian territories.

In a statement posted on the ICC website on Tuesday night, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “The statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on April 1, 2015,” in reference to the Rome Statute that established the ICC and was adopted in the Italian capital on July 17, 1998.

On Monday, Herman von Herbel, the ICC’s registrar, confirmed that the body had received documents by Palestine declaring its acceptance of its jurisdiction. This paves the way for the court’s investigation of Israeli crimes committed during the recent war on Gaza.

When Palestine accedes to the Rome Statute, The Hague-based court would be able to prosecute Israeli officials for crimes they have committed over the past months in the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed the application to join the ICC after the United Nations Security Council rejected a Palestinian proposal for statehood on December 30. (T/P011/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)