Netanyahu: PA war crime allegations ‘brazen gall’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a scathing attack against the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday, accusing it of hypocrisy following reports that the Palestinians were prepared to press war crime charges against Israeli soldiers in the Hague’s International Criminal Court.

“While we are talking, the Palestinian Authority is planning to go to the International Criminal Court and accuse us of war crimes,” Netanyahu said at an event attended by IDF soldiers.

“What brazen gall: The Palestinian Authority that praises terrorists, reprehensible murderers, comes to accuse the IDF, the most moral army in the world, of war crimes?”

The prime minister went on to assure the soldiers that the Israeli government will prevent the Palestinian Authority’s plans from coming into fruition.

On Monday, Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said the Palestinians have reached a consensus to join the ICC in the hopes of seeking justice for Israel’s alleged crimes.

“We view the ICC as the international legal and peaceful mechanism to combat impunity and seek accountability and justice,” he said in a first ever address to members of the court.

“It is the court where the Palestinian people desire to seek justice for the war crimes, and crimes against humanity, being perpetrated against them by Israel, the occupying power.”

Mansour said the Palestinians were “profoundly grateful” for the invitation to participate in the assembly’s meeting as an observer. That became possible after the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in November 2012 to upgrade the Palestinians’ status from a UN observer to a non-voting observer state. Previously, the Palestinians could attend as an “entity.”

In his short address, Mansour accused Israel of committing war crimes during the 50-day war against Hamas last summer and by building settlements on territory that the Palestinians claim for their future state.

Israel has said the IDF was as careful as possible to avoid civilian casualties during the war. It blames the heavy civilian death toll on Hamas, noting that the Islamic terrorist group launched rockets — and drew retaliation — from school yards, residential areas and mosques. Some 4,500 rockets and other projectiles were fired at Israel from Gaza during the summer war.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed in the fighting, according to UN and Palestinian estimates. Israel contends that at least half of those killed were Hamas fighters. Seventy-two people were killed on the Israeli side.