The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad Al-Maliki, said on Monday that he asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to set a date for submitting the case files pertaining to the settlements and war crimes lawsuits against Israel to the court.’I filed a request two days ago to the ICC to set a date so we can submit the case files of the settlements and Israel’s war crime lawsuits,’ al-Maliki told Palestinian radio, according to videonews.us.
‘We’re waiting for a date to be scheduled, and it might be in the middle of next month,’ al-Maliki said, adding that he ‘will head to The Hague for this [submitting the case files] once a date is set’.
On April 1st, Palestine officially joined the ICC after The Hague-based tribunal approved its accession bid.
PNN further reports that, in January, Palestinians formally delivered the UN papers ratifying the Rome Statute – the legal document establishing the court – with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acting as ‘depository.’
The move came after an Arab draft resolution at the UN General Assembly seeking a deadline for ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories failed to win the nine votes needed to pass.
Shortly later, Abbas applied for Palestinian membership in 18 international treaties, including the Rome Statute.
The ICC was established in 1998 as a court of last resort to prosecute the most heinous offenses – such as war crimes and crimes against humanity – in cases where national court systems had failed.
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