Days of Palestine, Washington/Jerusalem –Both American and Israeli officials condemned ICC’s decision to open a probe into possible Israeli war crimes.
“We strongly disagree with the ICC prosecutor’s action today,” US State Department Spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a statement on Friday.
The US even did not want the ICC to think of looking at the face of the Israeli occupation or, let me call it: the murderer state.
“It is a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighbourhoods, is now being scrutinised by the ICC,” Rathke said.
This stance made it clear why the US has been always against the establishment of a Palestinian state. It had condemned the recent wave of EU states’ recognition of the Palestinian state.
Rathke said in the statement: “As we have said repeatedly, we do not believe that Palestine is a state and therefore we do not believe that it is eligible to join the ICC.”
Netanyahu: ‘Scandalous’
Israeli occupation condemned the investigation. “It is scandalous that mere days after terrorists massacred Jews in France, the ICC prosecutor opens a probe against the Jewish state,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement e-mailed by his office.
He said the decision “makes the court part of the problem and not part of the solution.”
The Rome Statute, the international court’s founding treaty, lays out no deadlines or timelines for making a decision on a preliminary probe.
“The office gives due consideration to all submissions and views conveyed to the office during the course of a preliminary examination, strictly guided by the requirements of the Rome Statute in the independent and impartial exercise of its mandate,” according to the statement.
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor on Friday opened an initial probe to see if war crimes have been committed against Palestinians, including during last year’s Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda decision comes after the Palestinians formally joined the ICC earlier this month, allowing them to lodge war crimes and crimes against humanity complaints against the Israeli occupation as of April 2014.
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