Officials: Trip’s aim would be PR, not investigating alleged war crimes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a request by the International Criminal Court to send representatives to meet with Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the coming weeks, senior government sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Friday.
Officials say the trip would be limited to public relations and educating the public about the ICC, and not gathering evidence about alleged war crimes during the 2014 Gaza war (Operation Protective Edge) or about settlement activity.
The visit would be almost unprecedented since Israel has not cooperated with numerous UN and other international investigations of alleged war crimes in the past, often refusing UN officials entry into the country.
Neither officials involved in the UN Human Rights Council’s Goldstone Report on the 2008-9 Gaza war (Operation Cast Lead) nor in the McGowan-Davis Report on the 2014 Gaza war were permitted to enter.
The ICC Prosecutor’s Office commented on the potential opening: “What we can confirm at this stage is that the Office of the Prosecutor is in talks with both Palestinian and Israeli authorities about a potential visit.”
It is unclear whether a meeting with the PA would be in the West Bank and whether it would involve Hamas representatives.
The IDF, the Human Rights Council, the ICC and other entities have been investigating war crimes allegations that the IDF killed around 2,100 Palestinians – including between 50-80 percent civilians – during the war against Hamas in 2014. During that conflict, Hamas killed 73 people on the Israel side and hundreds of thousands fled their homes due to Hamas’s rocket fire.
Neither officials involved in the UN Human Rights Council’s Goldstone Report on the 2008-9 Gaza war (Operation Cast Lead) nor in the McGowan-Davis Report on the 2014 Gaza war were permitted to enter.
The ICC Prosecutor’s Office commented on the potential opening: “What we can confirm at this stage is that the Office of the Prosecutor is in talks with both Palestinian and Israeli authorities about a potential visit.”
It is unclear whether a meeting with the PA would be in the West Bank and whether it would involve Hamas representatives.
The IDF, the Human Rights Council, the ICC and other entities have been investigating war crimes allegations that the IDF killed around 2,100 Palestinians – including between 50-80 percent civilians – during the war against Hamas in 2014. During that conflict, Hamas killed 73 people on the Israel side and hundreds of thousands fled their homes due to Hamas’s rocket fire.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post