PM convenes panel to discuss plans to discredit ICC probe

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to launch a campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court, following its announcement that it would pursue a war crimes probe against Israel over the summer war in Gaza, Israeli sources said Sunday.

Netanyahu convened a meeting of legal advisers and other officials to hash out an Israeli response to the ICC move, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Earlier, Netanyahu derided the Hague-based body’s decision and vowed to fight it.

Chief ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation on Friday in order to examine if war crimes were committed by Israel, the Palestinians, or both in the lead-up to, and during, Operation Protective Edge, last summer’s 50-day conflict between the Israel Defense Forces and various groups in Gaza.

Netanyahu met with security officials and legal experts, concluding that it was necessary to thwart any attempt by the court to prosecute Israel for defending itself against terrorism.

The group will work to discredit the legitimacy of the international tribunal, as the Palestinian Authority is not a state, and technically unable to file a case against the Jewish state in the ICC, said the PMO source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The panel also expressed disappointment over the hypocritical nature of the ICC, accusing The Hague of being biased towards Israel, and stating that the probe would harm the international effort to fight terrorism.

Israeli and American officials have been harshly critical of the ICC move since the Friday decision.

“The decision by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court to begin an inquiry against the State of Israel is the height of hypocrisy and the opposite of justice,” Netanyahu said at the start of the cabinet meeting Sunday morning. “I have already encountered such phenomena during my years of public service representing the State of Israel both as ambassador to the UN and as prime minister, but this decision by the prosecutor is in a category of its own. It gives legitimacy to international terrorism.

“We will fight it in every way possible and we will also recruit others to fight this absurdity, and they are already being recruited. We will not allow Israel Defense Forces soldiers to face international tribunals. I would also like to say that these steps will not deter us from doing what is necessary to defend the State of Israel and its citizens,” added Netanyahu.

The prime minister also slammed the investigation on Saturday, claiming the ICC was subverting its own “lofty goals,” which were to prevent the repetition of history’s worst crimes, including the Holocaust.

“The court was founded to prevent a repeat of history’s worst crimes, foremost among them the genocide of 6 million Jews,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Now the Palestinians are cynically manipulating the ICC to deny the Jewish state the right to defend itself against the very war crimes and the very terror that the court was established to prevent.”

Earlier Saturday, Hamas welcomed the ICC decision to probe Israel, saying it would provide the tribunal with evidence to aid the investigation.

“What is needed now is to quickly take practical steps in this direction and we are ready to provide [the court] with thousands of reports and documents that confirm the Zionist enemy has committed horrible crimes against Gaza and against our people,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Prosecutors in The Hague announced that the preliminary examination would review “in full independence and impartiality” alleged crimes committed since June 13 last year, the beginning of tensions between the two sides that culminated in the summer conflict, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 2,200 Palestinians, according to Hamas figures, and 72 people on the Israeli side.

Potential cases that ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda could take on include allegations of war crimes by Israel during last summer’s Gaza war, where the Palestinians suffered heavy civilian casualties. Israel’s settlement construction on land claimed by the Palestinians could also be examined. The cases could also include alleged war crimes by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, including the firing of thousands of rockets at Israeli residential areas from crowded neighborhoods.

The prosecutor’s announcement came after the PA acceded to the Hague-based court’s founding treaty and recognized its jurisdiction dating back to July, the eve of the last Gaza war. That move opened the door to an ICC investigation that could target possible crimes by both Israel, which is not a member of the court, and the Palestinians.

“A preliminary examination is not an investigation, but a process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with a [full] investigation,” Bensouda said.

Depending on her findings, Bensouda will decide at a later stage whether to launch or quash the investigation, based on the initial probe.