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Introduction and Overview

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Palestine and the International Criminal Court

Part of the book series: International Criminal Justice Series ((ICJS,volume 21))

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Abstract

This chapter provides a general overview and an introduction. It starts by giving a background to the interaction of Palestine with the International Criminal Court followed by the objectives of the study. It also presents a discussion of the available literature on the topic. The final section of the chapter provides the limitations followed by the outline adopted to answer the main questions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Wegner 2015, p. 1.

  2. 2.

    Bar-Siman-Tov 2015.

  3. 3.

    Meloni and Tognoni 2012, p. v. Palestine remained far from the docket of any international Court after it first appeared as a focus of litigation before the Permanent Court of International Justice in 1924. See Permanent Court of International Justice, Greece v. U.K. (Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions), Judgment, 30 August 1924, PCIJ Series B no. 3.

  4. 4.

    Aksar 2004, pp. 7 et seq.; Bantekas and Nash 2010, pp. 8 et seq.; Cassese 2002, p. 3; Mettraux 2011, pp. 3 et seq.; Werle and Jessberger 2014, pp. 1–2.

  5. 5.

    Preamble of Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, opened for signature 17 July 1998, 2187 UNTS 90 (entered into force 1 July 2002) (Rome Statute); Bassiouni 2013, p. 654; Scheffer 2011, pp. 67 et seq.

  6. 6.

    See Rome Statute, above n. 5.

  7. 7.

    Ibid., Preamble.

  8. 8.

    McGoldrick 2004, pp. 42–43.

  9. 9.

    Rome Statute, above n. 5, Article 5; Meron 1999, p. 48.

  10. 10.

    Rome Statute, above n. 5, Article 17(1)(a).

  11. 11.

    Ibid., Article 12(2).

  12. 12.

    Ibid., Article 14.

  13. 13.

    Charter of the United Nations, opened for signature 26 June 1945, 1 UNTS XVI (entered into force 24 October 1945); Rome Statute, above n. 5, Article 13(b).

  14. 14.

    Ibid., Articles 13(c) and 16.

  15. 15.

    Ibid., Articles 13 and 15.

  16. 16.

    The provision aims to expand the jurisdictional scope of the Court by allowing non-member States to grant temporary or ad hoc jurisdiction to the ICC. If a crime within the scope of the Statute is committed by a non-member State on the territory of a non-member State, the latter could make a declaration on the basis of this provision. See Rome Statute, above n. 5, Article 12(3).

  17. 17.

    Palestinian National Authority 2009.

  18. 18.

    OTP, Situation in Palestine, 3 April 2012, https://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/C6162BBF-FEB9-4FAF-AFA9-836106D2694A/284387/SituationinPalestine030412ENG.pdf (accessed 20 November 2017).

  19. 19.

    UNGA 2012.

  20. 20.

    OTP, Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda: The public deserves to know the truth about the ICC’s jurisdiction over Palestine, 2 September 2014, https://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/press%20and%20media/press%20releases/Pages/otp-st-14-09-02.aspx (accessed 30 July 2015).

  21. 21.

    The Israeli offensive killed more than 2,000 people including 539 children. Hamas fired 3,659 rockets killing six civilians. See UNHCR 2015, pp. 18–59; Dekel 2014, pp. 13–17.

  22. 22.

    The draft Resolution submitted to the UNSC insists on the necessity of an urgent solution. It demands the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the West Bank and East Jerusalem by the end of 2017. The draft fell short of one vote when Nigeria and South Korea, States expected to vote in favour of the bid, abstained. See J. Goldberg, Palestinian UN bid fails by 1 vote. Was that the plan? 30 December 2014, https://forward.com/opinion/211846/palestinian-un-bid-fails-by-1-vote-was-that-the-pl/. (accessed 30 July 2015); UN News, UN Security Council action on Palestinian statehood blocked, 31 December 2014, https://news.un.org/en/story/2014/12/487342-un-security-council-action-palestinian-statehood-blocked (accessed 30 July 2015).

  23. 23.

    In accordance with Article 126(2) of the Rome Statute, above n. 5, the Statute entered into force for the State of Palestine on 1 April 2015. The ICC on Palestine, https://www.icc-cpi.int/palestine?ln=en (accessed 1 August 2015).

  24. 24.

    ICC, Press release: The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, opens a preliminary examination of the situation in Palestine, 16 January 2015, ICC-OTP-20150116-PR1083.

  25. 25.

    See, among others, Ash 2009, p. 186; Azarova 2013; Dugard 2013, p. 11; El Zeidy 2014; Meloni and Tognoni 2012.

  26. 26.

    See, for instance, Ash 2009, p. 186; Ronen 2012, pp. 476–480.

  27. 27.

    See, for instance, Pellet 2010; Shany 2010, pp. 342−343.

  28. 28.

    Dugard 2013, pp. 563–570; Quigley 2009, pp. 436–439.

  29. 29.

    See, for instance, Meloni and Tognoni 2012; Schabas 2014, p. 374; Triffterer and Ambos 2016, pp. 687 et seq.

  30. 30.

    See, for instance, El Zeidy 2014.

  31. 31.

    Azarova and Weill 2012, pp. 913 et seq.

  32. 32.

    Dugard and Reynolds 2013, p. 912; HSRC 2009.

  33. 33.

    Ronen 2012, pp. 491–492.

  34. 34.

    Wegner 2015, p. 3.

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    Seada Hussein Adem

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Adem, S.H. (2019). Introduction and Overview. In: Palestine and the International Criminal Court. International Criminal Justice Series, vol 21. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-291-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-291-0_1

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