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ICC Orders Prosecutor to Reopen Mavi Marmara War Crimes Case Against IDF
(Jerusalem Post) Yonah Jeremy Bob - In a 2-1 decision, the International Criminal Court on Thursday ordered its chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, to consider opening a full criminal investigation into war crimes allegations against IDF personnel relating to the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla, just seven months after she had closed the file. The ICC told Bensouda she should have considered more seriously the possibility that the deaths of those killed were "systematic or resulted from a deliberate plan or policy to attack, kill or injure civilians." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded that the IDF acted "in self-defense in stopping an attempt to break a blockade established in accordance with international law," as confirmed by a report sponsored by the UN secretary-general and by a quasi-independent Israeli commission with international observers. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said, "It is not clear why the court stubbornly persists in directing resources to superfluous work relating to complaints with cynical political motivations, instead of working on issues for which it was established," such as mass killings.