Arid and icy literature piles up on the office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Since the attempts to expel Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem and the eleven days of war in Gaza, complaints have fueled the investigation opened on March 3 by prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, including that filed by Jawad Mahdi, the owner of the building housing the offices of the Associated Press and the Al-Jazeera channel, destroyed by Israeli sniper fire on May 15.
“Since May 10, 2021, this territory now protected by the ICC that is Palestine has been the object of military operations”, writes his lawyer, Gilles Devers, describing a disproportionate fight. It’s a war crime “Claimed by the highest political and military authorities [israéliennes] “, estimates the lawyer from Lyon, author of several complaints lodged in The Hague in recent years, on behalf of more than 1,600 inhabitants of Gaza. Reporters Without Borders also informed the prosecutor of the attack on 23 local and international media, urging her to reconcile these facts with those of 2018 and “ intentional targeting (…) dozens of Palestinian journalists covering the protests “ tell of the March of Return, in which 195 Palestinians, including 41 children, were killed, according to a United Nations report.
Crimes of “persecution and apartheid”
After the violence that opposed Jews and Arabs in several so-called “mixed” cities of Israel, the threats of expulsion from East Jerusalem and the conflict between his army and Hamas, the Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, cannot, henceforth, totally ignore the judicial front. Unlike 2008, 2009 and 2014 in Gaza, the latest clashes took place while an ICC investigation into crimes committed in the occupied territories is formally open. And if it did not prevent or dissuade anything, it does worry Tel Aviv.
If the ongoing investigation into crimes committed in the occupied territories has not prevented anything, it worries Tel Aviv
Visiting May 13 in Lod, the epicenter of the latest riots between Jews and Arabs, Benjamin Netanyahu tried to reassure his soldiers. “We hear whispers of concern about commissions of inquiry, investigations and controls, he had declared. We will give you all the tools you need to defend yourself, defend the citizens of Israel and prevent unrest. You have our support, don’t worry. ”
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