The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced on Tuesday that the court does not have jurisdiction to investigate Palestinian Authority allegations over the 2008-2009 Gaza war.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced on Tuesday that the court does not have jurisdiction to investigate Palestinian Authority allegations over the 2008-2009 Gaza war.
In 2009, immediately after the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, PA representative Ali Khashan submitted a declaration to Silvana Arbia, the ICC registrar, stating that the PA recognizes the court’s jurisdiction “for the purpose of identifying, prosecuting and judging the authors and accomplices of crimes committed on the territory of Palestine since July 1, 2002.”
ICC General Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that the court cannot investigate the PA's allegations because the court only has jurisdiction over recognized states.
The United Nations Security Council has not yet made a recommendation to recognize Palestine as a state, the Prosecutor said.
"I am not prosecutor of the world; I am prosecutor of the countries [that] accept my jurisdiction," Ocampo explained to the Dubai-based Al Arabiya news channel.
"In order to proceed," Ocampo explained, "we need the General Assembly of the UN accepting Palestine as a sovereign state."
Were Palestine to be recognized as an observer state at the UN - a goal the PA has sought to achieve - then the ICC could begin to investigate the PA's claims, Ocampo said.
Israel responded warily to the International Criminal Court general prosecutor's decision, questioning some of Luis Moreno-Ocampo's "assumptions."
"While Israel welcomes the decision on the lack of ICC jurisdiction," a statement from the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's Bureau said, "it has reservations regarding some of the legal pronouncements and assumptions in the Prosecutor's statement."
The Foreign Ministry explained that it had "made it clear in the first place that the ICC has no jurisdiction on the matter," adding that Israel has already carried out its own investigations of the claims.
"In Israel, the issue has, for an extensive period of time already, been addressed by inter-ministerial teams, headed by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Justice, with the participation of other bodies," the statement said.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK, JPOST.COM STAFF

JPost.com