{"id":46384,"date":"2014-08-25T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=46384"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:30:42","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:30:42","slug":"report-us-exerting-pressure-on-icc-not-to-open-war-crimes-probe-against-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/08\/report-us-exerting-pressure-on-icc-not-to-open-war-crimes-probe-against-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: US Exerting Pressure on ICC Not to Open War Crimes Probe against Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘The Guardian’ quotes lawyers and former court officials as saying that western pressure has influenced decision not to open probe. <\/em><\/p>\n

The US and other western powers have exerted pressure on the International Criminal Court at The Hague to prevent a war crimes probe of Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip, The Guardian<\/em> reported on Monday [18 Aug 2014], quoting former court officials.<\/p>\n

During Operation Protective Edge, the Palestinian Authority has threatened \u00a0to request that the court look into allegations that the civilian deaths in Gaza during the IDF’s operation constitute a war crime.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the issue is among the matters being discussed at cease-fire talks in Cairo.<\/p>\n

Palestinians requested that the court probe Israel for war crimes in 2009 , following Operation Cast Lead, however that request came before the Palestinians were recognized as a non-member observer state at the United Nations in 2012.<\/p>\n

The ICC itself is divided on whether or not it has jurisdiction to probe the matter based on the 2009 request, or whether a new request would have to be submitted, according to The Guardian<\/em>. The Palestinian factions would have to agree on submitting a new request, a difficult task, as Hamas would also be opening itself up to a war crimes inquiry.<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/em> reported that western pressure has prevented the ICC from taking the view that the 2009 request gives the court jurisdiction to open a war crimes investigation into Israel’s actions.<\/p>\n

Both current ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and Luis Moreno Ocampo, who was prosecutor at the time of the 2009 Palestinian declaration, argue that a new Palestinian request would have to be made to allow the court to open an investigation. However, The<\/em>\u00a0Guardian<\/em> quoted another former official of the court as saying, “They are trying to hide behind legal jargon to disguise what is a political decision, to rule out competence and not get involved.”<\/p>\n

The French lawyer representing the Palestinians, Gilles Devers, was quoted by The Guardian<\/em> as saying that “there is enormous pressure not to proceed with an investigation. This pressure has been exerted on Fatah and Hamas, but also on the office of the prosecutor.<\/p>\n

“In both cases, it takes the form of threats to the financial subsidies, to Palestine and to the International Criminal Court,” he added.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 jpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘The Guardian’ quotes lawyers and former court officials as saying that western pressure has influenced decision not to open probe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}