Palestinians become official ICC member

Israel could face war crimes charges for damage inflicted in Gaza during last summer's war. Khalil Hamra/AP Photo

RAMALLAH // The Palestinians formally gain membership of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday with the aim of pursuing Israel for war crimes, despite uncertainty over the move’s wider ramifications.

Joining the ICC is another step in the Palestinian diplomatic and legal campaign for statehood, which gained steam in 2014.

Membership has uncertain consequences, however, not only because it is highly unlikely that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israelis will find themselves being tried at The Hague-based court, but also because it constitutes a new deterioration in the Palestinians’ strained relationship with the Jewish state.

“Palestine has and will continue to use all legitimate tools within its means in order to defend itself against Israeli colonisation and other violations of international law,” said senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat.

The ICC has long been brandished as one of the Palestinians’ doomsday measures, along with threatening to end West Bank security coordination with Israel.

Israel considers the prospect of ICC investigations as outrageous, and Mr Netanyahu has accused the Palestinian unity government of “manipulating” the court.

When the Palestinians moved to join the court on January 2, Israel retaliated by cutting off millions of dollars in monthly tax payments that it collects on behalf of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

However, Mr Netanyahu has since released the withheld tax payments, which constitute two-thirds of the PA’s income, excluding foreign aid.

In exchange for this unfreezing, some Israeli media reported that the Palestinians had agreed to refrain from filing complaints to the ICC on Wednesday – something that the Palestinians have denied.

“It’s a huge lie. Taxes have nothing to do with our ICC approach. The ICC train already departed,” said Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for Palestine Liberation Organisation.

The final stage of the ICC membership process will be primarily ceremonial, with Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki receiving a copy of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty.

While some Palestinian officials announced April 1 as the day they would file complaints against Israelis, in reality it is more likely that they will wait, as state members are only able to draw the court’s attention to specific cases.

In addition, they will be holding on to see the outcome of a preliminary investigation that was launched by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on January 16.

While seeking ICC membership, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas sent the court documents that authorised the prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes that have taken place in Palestinian territories since June 13, 2014.

Israel’s summer war on Gaza killed 2,200 Palestinians and 73 Israelis.

So far, however, no ICC investigation of Israeli officials has been launched and no time framework has been set for one.

But the Palestinians are confident that an investigation will happen sooner rather than later. They reject the argument that Israeli officials cannot be tried at the ICC, because Israel is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, maintaining that the court can also investigate crimes committed on the territory of member states.

* Agence France-Presse