by Edna Adato, Shlomo Cesana, The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff
Shurat HaDin Law Center files complaint at International Criminal Court against PLO leaders Jibril Rajoub, Majid Faraj and Palestinian PM Rami Hamdallah • Move follows Palestinian appeal to join the ICC to pursue war crime charges against Israel.
Shurat HaDin's founder and
director, attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
|
Photo credit: Yossi Zeliger  |
Israel-based advocacy group Shurat HaDin on
Monday filed a war crimes complaint against three top Palestinian
officials it accuses of terrorism, torture and civil rights violations.
The Shurat HaDin Law Center filed the
complaint with the International Criminal Court in The Hague against
Palestine Liberation Organization officials Jibril Rajoub, Majid Faraj
and Rami Hamdallah, the current Palestinian prime minister. The suit
follows similar complaints the group filed against Hamas political
leader Khaled Mashaal and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Hague receives thousands of such requests a
year, but while it rarely takes action, the Israeli group's motion came
on the heels of the Palestinians' application to the ICC, made with the
explicit purpose of pursuing war crimes charges against Israel. The
gambit has left the Palestinian Authority vulnerable to their own set of
potential war crimes allegations over rocket and terrorist attacks by
Hamas on Israeli population centers and other violence against Israeli
targets.
Shurat HaDin's founder and director, attorney
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, said the Palestinians must understand that
approaching the ICC is "a double-edged sword."
Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf rejected the
accusations, saying the ICC should focus on Israel and that "people
under occupation have the right to resist their occupiers, according to
the international law."
Abbas has been under heavy pressure to take
stronger action against Israel amid months of rising tensions over the
collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks last spring, and a 50-day war
between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip over the summer.
In a related development, the ICC said the Palestinians
had notified it that they would accept ICC jurisdiction as of June 13,
2014. The choice of date appears aimed at including allegations against
Israel relating to the Gaza war but avoiding charges against the
Palestinians over the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers
the previous day, June 12.
Edna Adato, Shlomo Cesana, The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=22623
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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