Palestine CPI: Les informations décisives de ce 9 août 2014

Ce 9 août 2014 est marqué par des développements très importants, que je reproduis dans la langue d’origine, pour que chacun puisse garder intact ces documents.

 1/ M. Saleem AL SAQQA, ministry of Justice : Palestine will not withdraw their complaint to the ICC

Palestinian Justice Minister Salim Al-Saqqa affirmed that the Palestinian complaint to the ICC against Israeli war crimes had not been withdrawn, Palestinian newspaper Al-Resalah reported on Saturday.

Several sources reported on Friday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas had withdrawn the complaint under international pressure.

Al-Saqqa recognised that there is international and regional pressure on the PA to withdraw the complaint. He did not name any of the bodies exerting that pressure, but he affirmed that the complaint is still "active."

He said that he is the only person "authorised" to deal with the complaint and he did not "withdraw" it. "I will not withdraw it," he stressed.

The minister said that the PA had filed the complaint to the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda through the famous French lawyer Jill Denver.

Al-Saqqa said that this is the best time to prosecute Israel over war crimes committed in Gaza. "If Israel was prosecuted after the Goldstone Report, it would not have had the courage to commit crimes again," he said.

He defended the Palestinian resistance and said that their resistance against the occupation is something guaranteed by all recognised laws.

French network Voltaire reported on Thursday that the PA President had asked the ICC to nullify the complaint because it would negatively backfire on the Palestinian issue.

In 34 days of war on Gaza, Israel has killed around 1,900 Palestinians. UN reports said that most of them were civilians, including at least 400 children. Israel also wounded around 9,000 Palestinians; most of them are also civilians.

2/ Presidential Advisor Denies Nullifying Complaint to ICC

Presidential Legal Advisor Hasan Al-Aouri denied Saturday news circulated on social media that the complaint filed to International Criminal Court was nullified.

Al-Aouri denied that Foreign Minister Riad Al-Malki has requested International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to nullify the complaint that was filed by Justice Miniter Salim Al-Saqqa on July 25th against Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Aouri added that these news are devoid of truth; the complaint, by law, could not be nullified by Al-Malki since it was filed by somebody else – not by him.

He stressed that Abbas has not requested Al-Malki to nullify the complaint, noting that had the President wanted to do so, he would have asked Al-Saqqa.

He stressed that such fabricated news come as part of the war waged by some media outlets against the Palestinian leadership who is working effortlessly to end the Israeli aggression and protect the Palestinian people.

3/ Professor John Dugard: the 2009 declaration is still valid

JOHN DUGARD: Well, Ken Roth has explained the basis for jurisdiction. Palestine is not a party to the Rome Statute. And in order to become a full member of the court, it would have to become a party to the Rome Statute. It can, however, make a declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the court for crimes committed in Gaza at a particular time, and that has not yet been done in recent times since the General Assembly recognized Palestine as a state. But I think it’s important to realize that in 2009, following Operation Cast Lead, Palestine did submit a declaration referring all international crimes committed in Palestine to the International Criminal Court, and that was rejected early in 2012 because at that stage Palestine was not recognized as a state. But later in 2012, the General Assembly did recognize Palestine as a state.

So my position is that it is possible for the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to exercise jurisdiction, to initiate an investigation already, without any more due. And this is confirmed by the fact that in the last few weeks the minister of justice and the deputy minister of justice of Palestine have submitted documents to the International Criminal Court indicating that, as far as they are concerned, the 2009 declaration is still valid. So, I must confess that I hold the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court partly responsible for the fact that no proceedings have been initiated against Israel and Hamas before the International Criminal Court.