The issue of today is the decision of ICC to recognize the state of Palestine and hence the authorization of ICC to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by Israel and the IDF in Palestine.

The decision was not unanimous, and we shall not address the legal issues but the political aspects of the decision.

As we have learned in the past from Saeb Areiqat himself, the real target was to impose on Israel compensations that will cripple its economy and make it a pariah state.

There was an internal dispute inside the Israeli establishment how to reply to the PA application to ICC. While the Likud echelon demanded to punish the PA for breaching the Oslo agreements, the security echelons called for careful treatment and not to take reckless decisions and Netanyahu supported the security point of view and refrained from action.

The issue will return now to the table and this time Israel will take decision maybe to put an end to the PA that appears as real threat to its vital interests. 

The Gulf states that hate the Palestinians will support a possible Israeli decision in that direction. 

Another question is raised about the decision that Palestine includes east Jerusalem and Gaza.

The ICC decided to also investigate Hamas for war crimes, on the same pattern that it has decided to investigate USA war crimes and Taliban’s in Afghanistan.

This raised 2 questions: if Palestine is one unit, why Abu Mazen is not accountable for Hamas crimes? If Hamas is recognized as separate body, how is Palestine a state? There is a contradiction here, at least from the political point of view.

Abu Mazen declared his intention to reconcile with Hamas, but Hamas can now put a demand from Abu Mazen to remove its role from the Hague table, and the challenge of Abu Mazen would be how it comes that he wants to reconcile with Hamas that is a target for ICC for investigation of war crimes.

After talks with Ramallah this morning the mood in Ramallah is not to press for investigation but exploit the decision for pressuring Israel to accept the international conference.

There is also a black point in the prosecutor Bensouda’s history. She was part of the coup d’état in Gambia and as matter of fact her role in that coup d’état must be investigated.

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