This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/world/middleeast/palestinians-to-join-international-criminal-court-defying-israeli-us-warnings.html

The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 4 Version 5
Palestinians Join International Criminal Court, Despite Israeli and U.S. Warnings Palestinians Join International Criminal Court, Despite Israeli and U.S. Warnings
(about 2 hours later)
JERUSALEM — President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority signed papers Wednesday to join the International Criminal Court, a provocative move that could lead to the prosecution of Israeli officials on charges of war crimes and risks severe sanctions from Washington and Jerusalem. JERUSALEM — President Mahmoud Abbas moved on Wednesday to have the Palestinian Authority join the International Criminal Court, opening a new front in the Middle East conflict that could lead to war-crimes prosecutions of Israeli officials and that risks severe sanctions from Washington and Jerusalem.
The defiant step came a day after the defeat of a United Nations Security Council resolution that demanded an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory by 2017. It was billed as part of a strategic shift by the Palestinian leadership to pursue statehood in the international arena after decades of failed American-brokered negotiations with Israel. The step is part of a strategic shift by the Palestinian leadership to pursue statehood in the international arena after decades of failed American-brokered negotiations with Israel. It came a day after the defeat of a United Nations Security Council resolution that demanded an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory by 2017.
“There is aggression practiced against our land and our country, and the Security Council has let us down — where shall we go?” Mr. Abbas said at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as he signed the Rome Statute, the founding charter of the court, as well as 17 other international treaties and conventions. “There is aggression practiced against our land and our country, and the Security Council has let us down — where shall we go?” Mr. Abbas said at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah as he signed the Rome Statute, the founding charter of the court, and a number of other international conventions.
“We want to complain to this organization,” he said of the court. “As long as there is no peace, and the world doesn’t prioritize peace in this region, this region will live in constant conflict. The Palestinian cause is the key issue to be settled.”“We want to complain to this organization,” he said of the court. “As long as there is no peace, and the world doesn’t prioritize peace in this region, this region will live in constant conflict. The Palestinian cause is the key issue to be settled.”
Mr. Abbas, whose popularity has plummeted since this summer’s battle between Israel and Hamas, has been under increasing pressure from the public and other Palestinian leaders to join the court, and use it to pursue cases against Israel’s settlement policy and military operations. But doing so could have major repercussions, both because Palestinians could also face charges at the court, and because Israel and the United States Congress have promised to respond harshly. An American State Department spokesman called the action “counterproductive,” arguing that it would only push the two sides further apart.
“There is no question mark as to what are the consequences, that there will be immediate American and Israeli financial sanctions,” said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “Those sanctions will gradually become more and more crippling, and this could indeed be the beginning of the end of the P.A. They fully realize that.” “It is an escalatory step that will not achieve any of the outcomes most Palestinians have long hoped to see for their people,” Jeff Rathke, the spokesman, said in a statement. “Actions like this are not the answer. Hard as it is, all sides need to find a way to work constructively and cooperatively together to lower tensions, reject violence and find a path forward.”
A December poll by Mr. Shikaki’s group showed 35 percent of Palestinians approved of the president’s performance, down from 50 percent before this summer’s war, and that if there were elections, Mr. Abbas, of the secular Fatah party, would lose to his rival from Hamas, the militant Islamist faction that dominates the Gaza Strip. With reconstruction of Gaza after the summer’s devastating war stalled amid ongoing acrimony between Hamas and Fatah despite an April reconciliation pact, analysts said Mr. Abbas was increasingly desperate to show he was doing something. Mr. Abbas, whose popularity plummeted after the battle between Israel and Hamas over the summer, has been pressed by other Palestinian leaders and by public opinion to sign the statute and then use the court to pursue cases against Israel’s settlement policy and its military operations. But the step could have major repercussions, not least because Palestinian officials could also face charges at the court. Both Israel and the United States have promised to respond harshly to the move.
“They have to take some meaningful steps to recover anything of their really shredded credibility,” Nadia Hijab, executive director of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, said of Mr. Abbas’s team. “There is no question mark as to what are the consequences, that there will be immediate American and Israeli financial sanctions,” said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah. “Those sanctions will gradually become more and more crippling, and this could indeed be the beginning of the end of the P.A. They fully realize that.”
“That fig leaf of action is growing steadily more tattered,” she added. “They keep saying it’s a new paradigm and they want to use international tools, but now they have actually been put on the spot.” A poll in December by Mr. Shikaki’s group found that just 35 percent of Palestinians approved of the president’s performance, down from 50 percent before the fighting in Gaza. If there were elections now, the poll found, Mr. Abbas and his more secular Fatah party would be defeated by Hamas, the Islamist faction that dominates the Gaza Strip. Reconstruction efforts in Gaza after the devastating war have stalled amid continuing acrimony between Hamas and Fatah despite an April reconciliation pact, and analysts said Mr. Abbas was desperate to show that he was effective.
After a ceremony at his Ramallah headquarters marking the 50th anniversary of Fatah’s founding and a leadership meeting, Mr. Abbas signed the official papers to join the Rome Statute, the Hague-based court’s founding treaty. The Palestinians have to wait 60 days before they can file cases at the court, a window of time that some in Washington are counting on to calm the situation. “They have to take some meaningful steps to recover anything of their really shredded credibility,” Nadia Hijab, executive director of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, said of Mr. Abbas’s team. “That fig leaf of action is growing steadily more tattered. They keep saying it’s a new paradigm and they want to use international tools, but now they have actually been put on the spot.”
But with Israeli elections scheduled for March 17, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians may be eager to show a strong response to what they have long denounced as an aggressive, unilateral move. Earlier on Wednesday, one of Mr. Netanyahu’s close allies, Yuval Steinitz, called Tuesday’s United Nations vote “no less dangerous than Hamas’s rockets,” saying the fact that France supported the resolution and Britain abstained “is very grave.” Meeting after a ceremony marking Fatah’s 50th anniversary, the Palestinian leadership decided to return to the Security Council next month, when changes in its membership make passage of the resolution more likely. That could force an American veto that the Obama administration has tried to avoid. Afterward, Mr. Abbas made a show of signing the papers to accede to the international conventions, though the Palestinians cannot take action under the agreements for up to 90 days, a window of time that some in Washington are counting on to calm the situation.
Wednesday’s signing came eight months after a similar move in April, when Mr. Abbas stunned Washington and Israel by joining 15 international treaties and conventions as nine months of American-brokered peace talks neared collapse. Those included the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and additional protocols of 1977 on the laws of war, along with ones dealing with discrimination against women and children. But Israel is scheduled to hold elections on March 17, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other politicians may be eager to show a strong response to what they have long said would be an aggressive unilateral act.
The International Criminal Court is a much more significant step. Created in 2002 to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the court currently has 122 member countries, and has mainly dealt with horrors in Africa. “It is the Palestinian Authority — which is in a unity government with Hamas, an avowed terrorist organization that, like ISIS, perpetrates war crimes — that needs to be concerned about the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement shortly after the signing.
The Palestinians asked the court in 2009 to investigate Israeli actions during Operation Cast Lead, a three-week military offensive in Gaza, but were rejected because they lacked the required United Nations status. A 2012 vote in the United Nations General Assembly upgraded Palestine’s status to non-member observer state, and some Palestinians have been urging Mr. Abbas to sign the Rome Statute ever since. “We will take steps in response, and we will defend the soldiers of the I.D.F.,” he added, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. “We will rebuff this additional attempt to force diktat on us, just like we rebuffed the Palestinian appeal to the U.N. Security Council.”
Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said that “in a single move, Palestinians have managed to buck up the Israeli right,” give Mr. Netanyahu “a great campaign issue,” undermine his opponents, “and alienate the Americans in the process.”
The signing came eight months after Mr. Abbas stunned Washington and Israel by having the Palestinian Authority join 15 international treaties and conventions at a time when nine months of American-brokered peace talks were near collapse.
The agreements Mr. Abbas signed on Wednesday cover a host of specific cross-border concerns, including organized crime, safety of United Nations workers, biological diversity, hazardous waste, international waterways, nuclear weapons and cluster munitions.
But the most significant by far is the one with the International Criminal Court, which was created in 2002 to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It currently has 122 member states, including most of Western Europe but not Israel or the United States.
The Palestinians asked the court in 2009 to investigate Israeli actions during Operation Cast Lead, a three-week military offensive in Gaza, but their request was rejected because they lacked the required United Nations status. A 2012 vote in the United Nations General Assembly upgraded Palestine to the status of a nonmember observer state, and some Palestinians had been urging Mr. Abbas to sign the Rome Statute ever since. But questions remain about Palestine’s qualifications, and in any event it is up to the court to decide which cases it will pursue.
Shurat HaDin, an Israeli legal group, has already filed war-crimes complaints at The Hague against Hamas. Mr. Abbas said Wednesday night that the Palestinian move meant that other Palestinian officials “will be able to be sued as well.”
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s economy minister, said that Mr. Abbas, too, could find himself charged in the court. He warned in a statement, “Someone who has terrorism smeared all over his head should not stand in the sun.”
Earlier on Wednesday, several thousand Palestinians, including hundreds of rifle-toting security troops with their faces obscured by masks or black paint, marched in a sea of yellow Fatah flags from Manara Square in Ramallah to Mr. Abbas’s headquarters, called the Muqata, for the anniversary ceremony. In Gaza City, at least 1,000 people gathered in the Unknown Soldier park for a parallel demonstration that was not announced publicly ahead of time.
“I’m here today to express my love for Palestine,” said one of the Gaza participants, Fouad al-Kharobi, who did not bring his daughters to the event out of concern that Hamas would shut it down. “I want to see Gaza in a new year that has some kind of stability and peace.”
In Manara Square, several onlookers seemed despondent. “The peaceful solution doesn’t bring any result,” said Jalal Mahmoud, 23. “I don’t want to participate in the march, it is useless.”
Jamal Hashem, who runs a dry-cleaning shop near the Muqata, said he opposed a third intifada, or uprising, against the occupation.
“The Israelis will kill us and the business; I will be dead,” said Mr. Hashem, 44. “I don’t really know what we should do.”
Mahdi Abdul-Hadi, director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, said criticism of the Palestinian Authority from the public and from intellectuals had mounted in recent weeks.
“The performance in New York was zero, very weak, very disappointing,” he said of the Palestinians’ efforts at the United Nations. “This is the call of the streets. Everybody is calling just to challenge the de facto apartheid regime, just to challenge Israel. You look too small compared to Hamas in Gaza, who are willing to die, who are willing to sacrifice more people and houses.”
But Ms. Hijab of the Washington-based Al-Shabaka research organization said that Wednesday’s move may have been unnecessary. She argued that the Palestinians “need to use the tools they already have to better effect.”
“They could be demanding that the Europeans cut completely any import of settlement products, that they stop settlers from traveling to Europe, and I think they would find ready ears here,” she said from her home in France. “What worries me is that all this joining stuff smacks of buying time, so as not to take action. Doing something meaningful with what you’ve joined is what’s really needed.”