As PLO approaches ICC, Israel feels fish out of water!

As PLO approaches ICC, Israel feels fish out of water!

-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL

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President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, upon winning an observer status on UN, lodged a complaint with the International Criminal Court at The Hague about the Israeli state crimes in Palestine. As a preliminary inquiry to ascertain the necessity, the International Criminal Court at The Hague will open an examination into whether war crimes charges lodged by the Palestinian Authority warrant a full criminal investigation.

The Palestinian Authority has approached the ICC ignoring all threats from USA and Israel. For the first time in his history, Israel feels now threatened that it is also answerable for its crimes against humanity. Even all powerful USA could not do anything about stopping the PLO from lodging the criminal complaint against its major fascist ally in Mideast. .

Israel’s political leaders reacted with anger to ICC decision to conduct preliminary investigations.  Israeli criminal regime has already felt the heat from the possible outcome of PLO’s criminal complaint against an arrogant Zionist government and military. Israeli hawkish PM Netanyahu quickly called the ICC decision “absurd.”

Israel says it does not accept the international courts as its own courts are enough to make judgments about its crimes against the besieged Palestinians. Noting that Hamas has offered to supply supporting documentation for the probe, Netanyahu angrily suggested that “Al-Qa’ida and ISIS will follow suit.” Israel seeks to obstruct the ICC investigation procedures.

The Israelis, whose opinion has been that the PA lacks standing to bring cases to the ICC at all because it is not yet a sovereign state, were even more aghast that the ICC has responded to PA charges before April 1 when according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon the application would be enacted.

Having failed to obstruct the Fatah-Hamas unity government in Palestine, Israel is also enraged that there is no mention of the firing of thousands of rockets into its civilian population by Hamas, the PA’s partner in a unity government.

In Washington, a US State Department spokesman said it is “a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutinized by the ICC.”

The premise behind the US-Israeli argument is that Palestinians have to ask permission from the Israelis to join the International Court, which is absurd. Colonialism is a thing of the past. The argument that third parties shouldn't intervene is also absurd because the ICC is not supposed to broker peace talks or anything of that sort, it is only supposed to rule on allegations of war crimes.

The fact that one side of this conflict, Israel, has a problem submitting itself to international law, and sees the other part doing so as an dangerous act, betrays the fact that their commitment to the peace negotiations wasn't sincere, and that Israel and defender USA never really considered the idea of stopping committing war crimes against the other side, the besieged Palestinians.

Israel continues to attempt to gain leverage by prolonging both illegal occupation and bogus talks so that its military can  continue to unleash crimes on Palestinian children.

Israel and Palestinians are unequals in all respects: Israel much stronger than Palestine and therefore dictates terms to Palestinians, attacks them at will on fictitious pretexts.

USA never allows any big power like Russia to play any proactive role in the resolution of Mideast conflict. It also deliberately fails the peace talks between Israel and Palestine.

Since all attempts by outside parties to install a two state solution have failed and Israel continues to apply its terror techniques in Palestine, the ICC can put some pressure on Israel to end crimes in Palestine.

Thanks to manipulations by Israel and USA, the whole conflict is a mess on so many levels and difficult to solve them all easily. USA, like Israel, never thought Israel would use Palestine as a weapons depot and use Palestinians as agents and labor.

The Israeli blockade in Gaza Palestine is in reaction to Hamas being elected. USA and Israel wanted the Fatah to win. Hamas was elected months after the pull out. Israel is angry and wants to destroy Gaza strip and not to reoccupy it because that would create more problems for Israel. Israel has many installed crossing points to enter the Gaza Strip and agencies transporting goods into Gaza must pay taxes to Israel at one of the crossing points controlled by Israel.

Israel continues to control the tax system of the Gaza Strip. Israel is responsible also for setting the VAT and customs rates on goods intended for consumption in the Gaza Strip, collecting these taxes for the Palestinian Authority, and transferring the tax monies to the Palestinian Authority each month. These powers enable Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by stopping the transfer of the tax revenues to it.

Israel has taken action to exonerate itself and challenge any UN Human Rights Council commission of inquiry into possible war crimes. A total of 85 incidents arising from the 50-day long assault on Gaza last summer are under UN Human Rights Council’s legal investigation.

Americans deliberately give false hopes to the Palestinians by pretending to be truthful mediators in the peace course of Israel-Palestine leaders. However, their credibility as unbiased mediators in Middle East has long been questionable as they openly support Israel and promote their crimes and shield them from punishment by misusing their veto on discredited UNSC.

It is an intentional shame that Israel is allowed to collect the taxes in Palestine on behalf of PLO and keep the money collected with it, using them as a bully to silence the besieged Palestinians. USA, among other western powers simply does not let justice and peace to prevail in Palestine and Mideast at large.

Among all occupational powers, like Israel, USA, India, Pakistan, Russia and China, only Israel collects the taxes from the occupied nation, Palestine and uses them as a powerful tool to control the Palestine with intermittent attacks, killing people, including children.

It is high time the UN stopped the awful practice of tax collection by Israel in Palestine and uses them as a tool to coerce the Palestine.

Fascist attack mode has been the corner stone of Israeli policies. UN must collect taxes, if at all in Palestine – and not to Israel – and give back to PLO without delay.

Also, let people not forget one of the most important points of Israel's policy, the appeasement of the radicals.

Israel's ultra orthodox are crazy. They assassinated Israel's president who signed the Oslo accords, bombed Palestinian neighborhoods and planned on blowing up the Al aqsa mosque.

If Israel is ever seen to be peaceful, they start to scale up protests and pressure on politicians. That's why settlements are being built; the Israeli government is forced to do so in order to appease them.

Due to appeasement policy of Zionist regime, the settlement blocks ultras have multiplied so much that they will come to dominate Israeli policies. They all vote in massive blocs.

The Oslo Agreements provide that Palestinians would have their freedom by May 1999. To date, Israel’s military occupation not only continues, but intensifies.  By May 1999, the interim period was to have ended and Palestinians were to be given their freedom. To date, Israel has failed to end its military occupation. After missing this deadline, Israel renegotiated a new deadline with the PLO. Under Article 1 of the Sharm El-Sheikh Memorandum, the Palestinians were to be given their freedom on September 13, 2000. By September 13, 2000, the Palestinians were still living under military occupation and continue to do so.

The Fourth Geneva Convention, ratified by Israel in June 1951 and which was not superseded by the Oslo Agreements, prohibits Israel from establishing colonies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. But Israel has been doing exactly that.

Israel has since 1993: Doubled the number of settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There are now approximately 400,000; Increased the number of illegal housing units in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (excluding Occupied East Jerusalem) by 62%; Confiscated more than 60,000 acres of Palestinian land for colony construction and related by-pass roads, uprooted 220,000 trees and demolished 690 homes in the West Bank alone; and Removed from official government maps the Green Line separating Israel from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, thereby failing to recognize the Occupied Palestinian Territories as a “single territorial unit”.

The process of withdrawal was to be carried out in three phases, beginning in October 1996 and ending in July 1997 and would have transferred approximately 88 percent of the West Bank to Palestinian control. Israel delayed each and every phase of the withdrawal. The Palestinian Authority has only full jurisdiction over 17.2 percent of the West Bank.

Under the Interim Agreement, Israel is required to prosecute Israelis for crimes committed against Palestinians. Since the signing of the Interim Agreement, there have been hundreds of attacks against Palestinians and Palestinian property. Since October 2000 alone, 44 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers, and there have been hundreds of attacks on Palestinian property. Israel has not prosecuted any of these settlers for their crimes. Israeli soldiers have deliberately aimed at killing Palestinian protestors and have not used live fire as a last resort. After conducting an inquiry into the Israel’s practices during the current uprising, Physicians for Human Rights (USA) concluded that the “IDF soldiers are not firing only in life-threatening situations and they are firing at heads and thighs in order to injure and kill, not to avoid loss of life and injury.”

Furthermore, even non-violent demonstrations (including those that do not involve stone-throwing), have met with violent responses by Israeli occupation forces.

Let the Intentional Court of Justice and ICC deliver justice to the Palestinians!

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