Press Releases

BADIL joins Human Rights Watch in calling upon the Office of the Prosecutor to begin formal investigation into international crimes committed in the oPt
BADIL joins Human Rights Watch in calling upon the Office of the Prosecutor to begin formal investigation into international crimes committed in the oPt
PR/EN/050616/28
 
On 5 June 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open a formal investigation into alleged serious international crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

The Court now has at its disposal a wealth of information upon which such a decision can be based, and the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (BADIL) has joined a host of Palestinian and international human rights organizations in submitting to the ICC information documenting a range of international crimes committed by Israeli citizens in the oPt.

Earlier this year, BADIL released No Safe Place; a report based upon BADIL’s formal submission to the ICC, delivered to the Office of the Prosecutor in February 2016. The report provides a damning indictment of Israeli acts and polices employed during the Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip in summer 2014, including forcible transfer and persecution of the occupied civilian population.

Intervention by the ICC is a necessity given the grave structural shortcomings of the Israel’s own internal investigative processes, highlighted both in No Safe Place and in this recent HRW statement.

Notably, earlier this month the Israeli human rights organization, B'tselem, ended its work with the Israeli Military Advocate General (MAG). B’tselem stated that its “cooperation with the military investigation and enforcement systems has not achieved justice, instead lending legitimacy to the occupation regime and aiding to whitewash it.”

As such, the ICC represents perhaps the only effective and practical means of delivering justice to victims of international crimes inside the oPt, and holding to account the perpetrators of these crimes.

Accordingly, BADIL joins Human Rights Watch in calling upon the Office of the Prosecutor to start a formal investigation into international crimes committed by inside the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) as a matter of great urgency.