Palestinian officials plan to apply for membership of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The step will further efforts to hold Israel responsible for a wide range of war crimes committed in its recent war on Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is seeking the endorsement of all Palestinian factions for his government's application for ICC membership. It comes as the death toll from the Israeli aggression in Gaza topped 2,000, with 11,000 more wounded and thousands of houses destroyed. “We asked our brothers in the Palestinian organisations to be aware of that [move] and also to give their consent for our joining [the ICC], which will have certain consequences that all of us have to take into account,” Abbas said at a news conference Saturday in Cairo. The Palestinian president said that his government has already signed 15 international agreements and intends to join more, most notably the Rome Statute of the ICC. In April, President Abbas filed applications for membership of various international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions and its additional protocols related to armed conflicts and areas under occupation. The move was in response to the collapse of peace talks after Israel refused to stop building settlements and declined to release a fourth batch of long-serving Palestinian prisoners. Hamas, which Israel accuses of committing war crimes, agreed to sign a document offering its endorsement of the move to join the ICC. Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Cairo-based member of the Hamas politburo, posted on his Facebook page: “Hamas agreed to sign a paper authorising President Abbas to join the Rome Statute, so that Palestine may become a member of the ICC.” Moshir Al-Masri, another key figure in Hamas, said that Hamas has nothing to fear from the ICC. “The resistance has nothing to fear. The Palestinian factions are engaging in a legitimate resistance that is approved by international laws and norms,” Al-Masri said. Legal experts say Palestinian membership of the ICC will mean that the court will have jurisdiction over war crimes committed in Palestinian areas. Abdel Karim Shobir, a legal expert, pointed out that Israel hasn't signed the Rome Statute, but this doesn't exclude it from investigation or prosecution. “As soon as any country joins the Rome Statute ... it has the right to take legal action against any other country, even if the latter is not a member of the ICC,” Shobir said. Several countries, including the US, have refused to join the Rome Statute for fear of prosecution of its military personnel. American officials claimed that ICC trials could be politically motivated. Shobir, who lives in Gaza, played down the possibility that Israel may take legal action in the ICC against Palestinian factions. “Resistance is a right protected by international law and norms, and people living under occupation are entitled to fight off the occupation until it is ended,” he said. In November 2012, the UN General Assembly granted Palestine non-member observer state status. Under this status, Palestine is entitled to join all UN agreements and organisations. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki met this month in The Hague with ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. He said afterwards that the non-member observer status of Palestine in the UN qualifies it to be an ICC member. Al-Maliki said that there is evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, beginning 8 July. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, total fatalities in Gaza as of Monday had risen to 2,131. The dead include 577 children, 260 women, and 101 elderly. Nearly 10,890 people were wounded in the shelling of Gaza, including 3,307 children, 2,042 women, and 401 elderly. Human rights investigators report that 15,571 houses were totally or partially destroyed in the shelling. The UN Human Right Council (UNHRC), which met in Geneva in late July, decided to form a fact-finding committee to investigate events in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza, including the murder of three settlers on 13 June, the burning alive of a young Palestinian man in Jerusalem, and the recent war on Gaza. The fact-finding committee is expected to submit a report to the UNHRC by March 2015. While Hamas welcomed the formation of the fact-finding committee, Israel rejected the move, saying that the UNHRC was anti-Israeli. Israeli officials said that they have no intention of cooperating with the committee. In a phone call with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated his claim that Hamas was jeopardising the Gaza population and provoking Israel into attacking civilian areas. Netanyahu accused Hamas of committing a “double war crime.” Hamas officials said that the phone call, which took place on the Sabbath, reflected Israel's fear of legal action in the ICC. In statements to journalists, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri said that Netanyahu's remarks “do not change the fact that the occupation is waging a war of genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza.” Some experts believe that action in the ICC against Israel must be preceded by a UN Security Council decision to this effect. This is unlikely to happen, as the US would almost certainly veto the move. Palestinian Justice Minister Salim Al-Saqqa said that he asked the French lawyer Jill Devier to file an official request to the ICC to investigate Israel's war crimes. In late July, Devier issued a statement saying that he was filing a complaint with ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on war crimes Israel committed in Gaza in June and July 2014. The UNHRC formed a fact-finding committee into Israeli actions following Israel's 2009 assault on Gaza. The committee, led by South African judge Richard Goldstone, identified several war crimes committed by Israel. But no legal action was taken against Israel, some say because Palestinian leaders were advised against it. This time it seems that the Palestinians, from across the political spectrum, want to see an international stand taken on Israel's war practices.
