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Legal Experts Question ICC over Alleged Israeli "War Crimes" Case
(JNS) Israel Kasnett - International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has set in motion an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the West Bank, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem. Eugene Kontorovich, director of International Law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum and director of the Center for International Law in the Middle East at George Mason University in Washington, told JNS that Bensouda "has come to the absurd decision that a non-country can sue a non-member of the ICC for a non-crime that nobody has ever been prosecuted for, in which the ICC prosecutor herself has said does not exist when it comes to Russia and Crimea or Turkey and Cyprus....This isn't international law; it's politics." A recent study published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs highlights the ICC's collaboration with and reliance on four radical NGOs: Al-Haq, Al-Dameer, Al-Mezan and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, some of which are affiliated with terror organizations, to promote complaints against the U.S. and Israel at the ICC. Avi Bell, of the faculty of law at Bar-Ilan University and the University of San Diego School of Law, said, "There are no good legal grounds for what the prosecutor wants to do." "From her annual reports since 2015, we know exactly what the prosecutor is looking at, and it is not the many Palestinian crimes," Bell said. "She is looking at alleged Israeli crimes related to settlements and crimes in combat, which include every military operation since 2014, including all incidents along the border of Gaza." "[Bensouda] will issue a charge sheet and arrest warrants. If any Israelis are stupid enough to go and appear in court, they will be tried....It is clear there are going to be charges....Once Israel made the correct decision to not be part of the ICC, it really makes no sense to grant it legitimacy and treat it like a genuine court of law."