# News & Current Events > World News & Affairs >  Not a country: ICC blocks Palestine war crimes probe

## John F Kennedy III

*Not a country: ICC blocks Palestine war crimes probe*

RT
 April 4, 2012

*The ICC has refused Palestines bid for an investigation into the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza strip on the basis that Palestine is not a recognized state. Human rights groups have strongly criticized the move, while Israel has praised it.*

A prosecutor from the International Criminal Court said the investigation would get the go ahead only if the UN or its Security Council recognizes Palestine as a state.

I need Palestine recognized as a state because I am not the prosecutor of the world; I am the prosecutor of the countries who accept my jurisdiction. I need a country accepting me and then I investigate the crimes, Luis Moreno-Ocampo told Al Arabiya on Monday.

Israel welcomed the announcement, the Israeli Foreign Minister saying in a statement that Israel made it clear in the first place that the ICC has no jurisdiction in this matter.

The Israeli military incursion into Gaza began in winter of 2008, when their forces entered Gaza with the aim of stopping rocket fire into Israel. Palestinian forces continued with their rocket bombardment in return for what they described as Israeli massacres.

The war came to an end in January 2009 when Israel declared a ceasefire, Hamas followed suit 12 hours afterwards.

The conflict is estimated to have claimed between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian lives.

Rights groups rounded on the decision, a spokesperson from Amnesty International branding the move as dangerous and inconsistent with the independence of the ICC.

It also breaches the Rome Statute, which clearly states that such matters should be considered by the institutions judges, said Marek Marczyñski, head of Amnesty Internationals International Justice Campaign on Tuesday.

The Rome Statute is the ICCs founding treaty and allows states not party to the statute to accept the Courts jurisdiction.

In 2009 the Palestinian Authority officially accepted the purview of the International Court, but the countrys lack of recognition as a state still remains the stumbling block impeding the investigation.

Israel is not subject to the Rome Statute and consequently denies the ICCs has any jurisdiction in Gaza.

Over 130 governments have supported Palestines status as an independent state, but the General Assembly still classifies the Palestine Liberation Organization as an observer state, as opposed to a non-member state.

The nation filed for UN membership last September, but the Security Council has yet to reach a decision as to whether it will welcome Palestine as a member state.

The lack of clarity concerning Palestines international status that is making it difficult for it do ask for legal action from institutions such as the ICC, says Jeff Halper, co-founder and executive director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

The Palestinians exist in a kind of a limbo. Because theyre not a state, they dont have access to all the instruments of international law, or of the UN system. But at the same time, international law that does apply to the occupied territories is intended to protect them. Especially the 4th Geneva Convention is not enforced by the international community.

Halper also told RT that this ambiguity is almost a catch-22 for the Palestinians, as they are left relying on the very people they believe oppress them to protect them.

So on the one hand, they dont have the instruments to protect themselves, and on the other hand the international community doesnt accept its responsibility to afford protection for the Palestinians. Its the hugest problem we have in international law and human rights  the instruments of law exist, the courts exist, the institutions exist. But the ability to implement international law on governments like Israel is completely missing, Halper said.


article here:
http://www.infowars.com/not-a-countr...-crimes-probe/

originally here:
http://rt.com/news/international-court-gaza-war-211/

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## eduardo89

Palestinians don't exist! Noot Swingrich told me so!

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## John F Kennedy III

> Palestinians don't exist! Noot Swingrich told me so!


It must be true.

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## jkr

Swingrich...ON THE M00N!

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## moderate libertarian

So that is why Obama and his masters punished Palestinisns by cutting off aid when they tried to seek a free state at UN using peaceful voting method while at the same time increasing aid to Israel?

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## FrankRep

*International Criminal Court*


*1998 - Injustice For All - The International Criminal Court (ICC)*











This 1998 video takes a hard-hitting look at the International Criminal Court, with perspectives from three of America’s best-informed experts on the subject.

*- Produced by: John Birch Society*


*Related Articles:*

*2009: Hillary Clinton Stumps for International Criminal Court*
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at a town hall meeting at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, on August 6, said it was a great regret but it is a fact that the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). By Warren Mass
*2008: Angelina Jolie Backs International Court*
On October 17, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) hosted a "Symposium on International Law and Justice" featuring actress Angelina Jolie, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and co-chair, with her husband, actor Brad Pitt, of the Jolie-Pitt Foundation. According to the CFR website, the symposium "was made possible through the generous support of the Jolie-Pitt Foundation."
*1998: Courting Global Tyranny*
Everywhere throughout Rome these days the signs of construction and restoration are unmistakable: ancient monuments, temples, churches, and basilicas are shrouded in scaffolding and streets are blocked off to traffic as workmen paint, chip, clean, and pave. The furious renovation campaign is in preparation for the new millennium, which has been designated Europa 2000 by the European Union and the Year of Jubilee by Pope John Paul II.

But the most significant construction in the Eternal City this summer did not involve bricks and mortar, and was largely invisible to the millions of tourists who came to bask in the Mediterranean sun and the grandeur that is Rome. For five weeks during June and July, hundreds of delegates from 160 nations met at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) complex to construct what advocates called "the last global institution to be created in this century": the International Criminal Court (ICC).

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## moderate libertarian

Would be interesting to know if God's laws of justice could be impeded by such  mumbo jumbo.

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