(New York Times) Isabel Kershner - The International Criminal Court on Friday determined that it has jurisdiction over the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, despite Israel's insistence to the contrary, opening the way for an inquiry into allegations of Israeli, and Palestinian, war crimes in the region. The ruling came six years after the office of the court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, began a preliminary investigation of Israeli actions in the territories, including the Gaza war of 2014. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "The court ignores real war crimes and instead persecutes the State of Israel, a state with a firm democratic regime, which sanctifies the rule of law, and is not a member of the court." He later accused the court of "pure anti-Semitism" while it "refuses to investigate brutal dictatorships like Iran and Syria, who commit horrific atrocities almost daily."
2021-02-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive