{"id":49587,"date":"2014-11-10T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=49587"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:29:32","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:29:32","slug":"icc-israel-committed-war-crimes-but-its-not-our-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/11\/icc-israel-committed-war-crimes-but-its-not-our-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC: Israel Committed ‘War Crimes’ but It’s Not Our Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Israeli<\/a>

Israeli naval vessels approach one of the boats in the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” in the Mediterranean Sea in 2010. (Photo: Reuters)<\/p><\/div>\n

According to lawyers, the court’s decision confirms that Israel has a ‘special status’ in regards to international law.<\/em><\/p>\n

International Criminal Court (ICC) lawyers believe that Israel is guilty of \u201cwar crimes\u201d for the raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza in 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists. However, they have also decided that the case does not meet their criteria for prosecution, according to court papers seen by Reuters on Wednesday [5 Nov 2014].<\/p>\n

On May 31, 2010, the Israeli military forcefully boarded six civilian ships from the \u201cGaza Freedom Flotilla\u201d that were traveling from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid and construction materials to the besieged region. The army boarded the ships in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n

The activists on board say they did not put up a fight, however the Israeli army insists that they were met with resistance \u2013 which led to several activists being killed, including eight Turkish nationals and an American of Turkish origin on the Mavi Marmara boat.<\/p>\n

The ICC does not have jurisdiction over crimes committed in either Turkey, where most the boats were registered, or Israel, since neither are members of the ICC. However, the Mavi Marmara was registered to the Comoros Islands, which is a member, making the crimes on board eligible for ICC investigation.<\/p>\n

“The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes under the Court’s jurisdiction have been committed in the context of interception and takeover of the Mavi Marmara by IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers on 31 May 2010,” read the papers.<\/p>\n

But the papers also added that prosecutors had decided the crimes \u201cwere not of sufficient gravity to fall under the court’s jurisdiction,\u201d reported Reuters. Their evidence and criteria for making this decision however, remained vague.<\/p>\n

“Not having collected evidence itself, the Office\u2019s analysis in this report must therefore not be considered to be the result of an investigation,” the paper read.<\/p>\n

However, according to the ICC website, considering individuals guilty of war crimes does make them eligible to be tried under the ICC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mandate of the Court is to try individuals rather than States, and to hold such persons accountable for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, namely the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression…\u201d<\/p>\n

The Indian Ocean State, another ICC member, referred the raid to court, which obligated the ICC to begin preliminary examinations into the matter, according to their mandate.<\/p>\n

“The Prosecutor’s decision marks the first time a State referral by an ICC States Party has ever been rejected by … Prosecutor without even initiating an investigation,” said lawyers Rodney Dixon and Geoffrey Nice in a statement.<\/p>\n

“It confirms the view expressed by politicians, civil society organizations, NGOs and commentators from many quarters that Israel has a ‘special status,'” they added.<\/p>\n

The report comes the same day that Bulent Yildirim, president of the Turkish NGO Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) \u2013 one of the NGOs who organized the flotilla \u2013 praised the ICC, expecting that they would announce on Thursday that Israel is guilty of \u201cwar crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ICC’s final decision is likely to anger other Turkish activists, but also Ankara who accused Israel of mass murder after the IDF attacked the flotilla.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 telesurtv.net<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the<\/em><\/strong> BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS <\/em><\/strong>campaign<\/em><\/strong><\/span> to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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

According to court papers seen by Reuters on Wednesday [5 Nov 2014] and to lawyers, the court’s decision confirms that Israel has a ‘special status’ in regards to international law. <\/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-49587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49587","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=49587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}