The Palestinians are planning to file the first “war crime” case against Israel with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1, Mohamed Shtayyeh, a senior PLO official, said on Monday.
Shtayyeh told visiting US church leaders that the Palestinian case refers to Operation Protective Edge and settlements.
He said that the Palestinians were now awaiting three “important steps.”
The first is this week’s meeting of the PLO leadership to decide on the future of relations between the PA and Israel.
The second is the upcoming elections in Israel. The Palestinians, Shtayyeh said, don’t see a difference between the various competing parties. “None of them has a program for ending the occupation, he said. “The (Isaac) Herzog and (Tzipi) Livni camp might show imaginary flexibility in appearance, while destroying its content.”
The third step, Shtayyeh said, envisages filing a charge sheet against Israel with the ICC in April.
Shtayyeh complained that the Palestinian territories were living through a big economic crisis that has seen a rise in the percentage of poverty and unemployment.
He attributed the crisis to the failure of the donor countries to fulfill their pledges to fund the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the Israeli government’s decision to withhold tax revenues belonging to the Palestinians.