RAMALLAH, May 22, 2018 (By The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) – Referral of the situation in Palestine to the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a national obligation in the absence of international accountability that deals with Israel as above the law, said Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), on Tuesday.
“The State of Palestine is fulfilling its legitimate duty to enshrine the rights of our people, foremost of which is our right to self-determination, and to hold the Israeli belligerent occupation accountable for the war crimes it continues to commit against the land and people of Palestine,” he said in a statement following Palestine submission of a referral to the Prosecutor of the ICC in The Hague on Tuesday.
“Israel, the occupying power, is committed to canceling the rights of the Palestinian people by defying their very existence on their land. It is, therefore, our national obligation to hold Israel accountable in the absence of an international accountability that continues to deal with Israel as a country above the law.”
Erekat said that the submission to the ICC “confirms Palestine’s commitment to the rule of international law and human rights principles and an evident expression of our natural right to protect our nation.”
He stressed that the Palestinians “will continue to exercise all efforts to hold Israeli war criminals accountable and to put an end to Israel’s occupation and state-sponsored terrorism, towards embodying the sovereignty of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
