Palestinians slam Israel for flouting all laws in settlement announcement
Saeb Erekat says plans to green light thousands of new settler homes should convince International Criminal Court to launch probe into Israel’s actions
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Senior Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat on Thursday slammed Israel for announcing new West Bank settlements, saying it showed that Israel felt itself above all laws and called for the International Criminal Court to launch a probe into Israel’s actions.
The approval for 2,500 Jewish homes in the West Bank delivered the message that Israel felt it was “above the laws of man, above the Security Council, above the International Criminal Court, above the Human Rights Council,” Erekat said.
Defense Minster Avigdor Liberman announced earlier Thursday that the government body responsible for authorizing settlement construction would green-light 3,900 housing units in the West Bank next week.
He said that the Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee, which falls under his office’s jurisdiction, would grant final construction approval for 2,500 homes while an additional 1,400 in 30 settlements would be advanced through various other planning stages.
Speaking in a video clip on Twitter, Erekat said, “This is a flagrant violation and an eye opener to the judicial council of the ICC that an official judicial investigation must be opened immediately.”
Dr. Erekat on Lieberman's announcement to push the immediate construction of 2,500 illegal settlement units: The message of Lieberman is that Israel is above the laws of man, above the Security Council, above the International Criminal Court, above the Human Rights Council. pic.twitter.com/TnZIBG04go
— Palestine PLO-NAD (@nadplo) May 24, 2018
“This cannot go on. Israel cannot continue business as usual with this impunity and immunity that they think they have.”
On Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said that he had asked the International Criminal Court to open an “immediate investigation” into alleged Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.
He said that these alleged crimes included Israeli settlement policies as well as recent violence in the Gaza Strip.
Since March 30, tens of thousands of Palestinians have taken part in weekly “March of Return” protests, which Israel says are orchestrated by the ruling Hamas terror group and used as cover for attempted attacks and breaches of the border fence.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops, more than half of them members of the Hamas terror group which controls the enclave, according to Hamas.
Israel has rejected the Palestinian request to the ICC as “cynical” and “absurd” and the White House said Wednesday that it was considering action against Palestinian diplomats in Washington over the move.
According to a US law passed in December 2015, the Palestinian Authority is subject to penalties if it pursues the prosecution of Israelis at the Hague-based ICC.
The ICC’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, signaled after al-Malki’s request that she would not be rushed into making a decision on whether to launch a probe into Israel’s behavior.
The Times of Israel Community.