US Opposes ICC Probe into Israeli Regimes Crimes against Palestinians

US opposition came shortly after the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced in a statement that her office would formally investigate the atrocities committed by the Israeli military against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the besieged Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem al-Quds since 1967.

“We firmly oppose and are disappointed by the ICC prosecutor’s announcement of an investigation into the Palestinian situation,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at his daily press briefing.

“We will continue to uphold our strong commitment to Israel and its security, including by opposing actions that seek to target Israel,” he added, claiming that the ICC “has no jurisdiction over this matter.”

The American official said the US had “serious concerns about” The Hague-based tribunal’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction on Israeli military forces.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken repeated almost exactly the same words in a tweet on Thursday.

The United States firmly opposes an @IntlCrimCourt investigation into the Palestinian Situation. We will continue to uphold our strong commitment to Israel and its security, including by opposing actions that seek to target Israel unfairly.

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) March 4, 2021

The ICC's chief prosecutor said in her statement that the investigations “will be conducted independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favor.”

In December last year, Bensouda announced that a five-year preliminary examination of the “situation in the state of Palestine” had provided her with “reasonable basis” to launch a war-crimes investigation into Israeli military actions in the besieged Gaza Strip as well as Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. But she had asked the court to determine whether she had territorial jurisdiction before proceeding.

Last month, the ICC confirmed that the territories occupied by Israel in a 1967 war were subject to its jurisdiction.

The ICC verdict was condemned by Israel but praised by Palestinians and international rights o

Israel occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip — territories the Palestinians want for a future state — during the Six-Day War in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza.

About 700,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds since then. The settlements are illegal under international law, but the international community has done little to pressure the Israeli regime into reversing its policies.

Palestine is a party to the ICC’s founding Rome Statute and has long carried out diplomatic efforts for the investigation of the war crimes by Israel in the occupied territories.

Both Israel and the United States have refused to sign up to the ICC, which was set up in 2002 to be the only global tribunal trying the world’s worst crimes.