As the old saying goes, be careful what you ask for-you may get it. Last week over the objections of the United States, Israel and Jordan, the Palestinian Authority applied for membership in the International Criminal Court, and today it is beginning to face the repercussions. An independent Israeli organization filed war crimes complaints in the ICC against senior Palestinian officials, the Israeli Government may weigh in with charges of its own, and there is a congressional movement to hold back US aid to the PA.
Today the Israel Law Center filed war crimes complaints against three senior Palestinian Authority Officials
1. Jibril Rajoub is Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and is second to Abbas within Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a terrorist faction within the PLO.Israel is looking to file war crimes suits against Palestinian leaders:
Our complaint demands the investigation and arrest of Rajoub, a leader of Fatah during the Gaza War, at which time the terrorist group fired numerous rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. Under international law, targeting civilians with deadly weapons is a war crime.
Fatah has boasted on its FACEBOOK page and in other social media that it was responsible for launching rockets at Israel this summer. As a senior Fatah leader, Rajoub should be held responsible for the actions of his subordinates who act in accordance with the terrorist faction’s policies and goals. The terrorist rocket attacks from Gaza left numerous Israelis dead and injured.
2. Majid Faraj is head of Palestinian General Intelligence
3. Rami Hamdallah was previously Minister of the Interior, and now serves as Prime Minister
Our complaint also alleges that Faraj and Hamdallah knowingly employ torture against ordinary Palestinians. Faraj and Hamdallah both are senior officials responsible for agencies within the Palestinian security apparatus and are liable for the widespread civil rights abuses and killings which were perpetrated by those agencies. The complaint requests that the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC investigate Faraj and Hamdallah for torture and murder and issue warrants for their arrest.
All three PLO officials are Jordanian citizens and that Jordan is a state member of the ICC. As such, the Chief Prosecutor can immediately launch an investigation.
Legal proceedings at courts in the United States and elsewhere are being weighed against Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, his Palestinian Authority and other senior officials, the source close to the government told AFP.Israeli sources have told YNet News that Israel has frozen the transfer of half a billion shekels (about $125 million) from tax funds collected on behalf of the PA by Israel and distributed every month, in response to the Palestinians' request.
He said that the basis of the complaints would be that Abbas's partnership in a Palestinian consensus government with Hamas makes him complicit in the militant Islamist group's rocket attacks from Gaza against civilians inside Israel.
"In recent days officials in Israel stressed that those who should be wary of legal proceedings are the heads of the PA who cooperate within the unity government with Hamas, a declared terrorist organisation which like the Islamic State (jihadist group) carries out war crimes -- it fires at civilians from within population centres."
Then there is the matter of US aid to the Palestinian Authority. Up until now Israel has always fought against congressional attempts to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority believing that a working "functioning" Palestinian Authority better than chaos. After the Palestinian entry into the ICC, Israel is requesting the US enforce a law which cuts of aid to the PA because of its "diplomatic terrorism" against the Jewish State.
Congress passed a funding bill (which was signed by President Obama) just before they adorned last month that contains language stipulating that the State Department would pull all economic support to the PA if “the Palestinians initiate an International Criminal Court judicially authorized investigation, or actively support such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians.”
Israel has changed its mind because she realizes the PA believes it will continue getting aid, without keeping its commitments, one of which was not to join the ICC. Furthermore Israel realizes if the Palestinians continue to get its US cash there is no way to dissuade it from its strategy of perpetual conflict either with guns or diplomatic war against Israel.
In the end, it will be interesting to see if despite the law whether President Obama cuts of aid to the PA, as we have found out this President believes he can rule by executive fiat.
Israel has changed its mind because she realizes the PA believes it will continue getting aid, without keeping its commitments, one of which was not to join the ICC. Furthermore Israel realizes if the Palestinians continue to get its US cash there is no way to dissuade it from its strategy of perpetual conflict either with guns or diplomatic war against Israel.
In the end, it will be interesting to see if despite the law whether President Obama cuts of aid to the PA, as we have found out this President believes he can rule by executive fiat.
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