![]() According to news reports, at the November 29, 2014 Arab League meeting, PA president Mahmoud Abbas began his speech by condemning the war crimes complaint we filed against him over the PLO’s involvement in launching rockets into Israel during the Gaza War this summer. Abbas complained:
“The Israelis beat us to it and filed the first claim against us.”
The PA has been threatening for many months that they are going to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) and pursue Israeli officials and IDF officers. Meanwhile, the Palestinian and Arabic media has been widely reporting our efforts and warnings to the PA, the PLO, Hamas and other terror groups – if you dare to seek membership in the ICC we will be waiting for you there with our own war crime complaints against you. All this month, the campaign has received front page articles in their media. These are some of the articles being published:
Maan News Service (leading news site in the PA)
Al-Quds Newspaper Quds Press International News Agency Bethlehem News Quds News Network Ajyal Radio- Ramallah (popular radio station in the PA)
The following is a translation of the Arabic front-page article appearing in Alhiat El-g’dida, the PA’s official newspaper in early December: “The Israeli Law Center “Shurat-HaDin” submitted a complaint against Chairman Mahmud Abbas in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged “war crimes.” The complaint claims the Palestinian leader may be tried for his responsibility for missile attacks targeting Israeli cities, executed by the PLO. The complaint outlines that Fatah was responsible for several missile attacks targeting Israeli cities during last summer’s war in Gaza, (this) in turn, implicates Abbas as responsible for war crimes.
Adv. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Head of the Israel Law Center claims:
“Fatah leader Abbas may be tried by the ICC. Abbas is a citizen of Jordan and Jordan is a member state of the court. The court has jurisdiction over crimes committed by a citizen of a member state. The crimes mentioned in the complaint, missile attacks against Israel, need to be investigated and the person responsible must stand trial.”
Furthermore, the complaint states:
“Abbas was the effective leader of Fatah forces during the summer war with Israel. During which time, Fatah terrorist’s in Gaza, fired several missiles towards Israeli cities, targeting Israeli civilians with deadly weapons, a crime according to international law.”
(Adv. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner) commented:
“Abbas is legally responsible for the actions of these groups in his capacity as Fatah’s commander; he (Abbas) has effective command over the various fractions.”
The Israeli Center quoted:
“During the war in Gaza, Fatah was fiercely proud of the rockets fired at Israeli cities. Jordan has various anti-terror laws but enforces these laws selectively, for political reasons. Jordan had never tried Palestinians on Terror charges, nor has the means to enforce these laws against Abbas.”
The Israeli Law Center commented:
“The alleged war crimes complaint establishes the legal groundwork granting ICC jurisdiction to prosecute Abbas for alleged war crimes the PLO raged against Israeli citizens.”
Darshan-Leitner:
“the Israel Law Center will not allow Fatah to launch missiles at Israel’s civilian population while Chairman Abbas hypocritically advocates state membership for the PA in the ICC.”
Leitner continued:
“Abbas is wrong in thinking that only crimes committed against Arabs are the only crimes that should be investigated.”
Leitner claims:
“Recently, senior Palestinian officials have threatened to join the ICC in order to charge Israeli government officials of war crimes.”
We are continuing our efforts to organize war crimes complaints against the Palestinians. Wishing you all a happy holiday season, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner |
Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center Israel Law Center
10 Hata’as St. Ramat Gan, 52512 Israel
Phone: 972-3-7514175 | Fax: 972-3-7514174 info@israellawcenter.org http://www.israellawcenter.org Blog: http://israellawcenter.wordpress.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ShuratHaDin Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/ShuratHaDin |
Tags Arab League Fatah gaza ICC Israel Israel Law Centre Jordan Mahmoud Abbas Palestinian Authority PLO rockets Shurat HaDin war crimes complaint
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It’s about time that someone stood up to the terror groups that are destabilising the Middle East.. Imagine if the lawyers claiming to be working for human rights actually joined with Shurat HaDin in indicting the real villains instead of falsely accusing Israel of breaches of human rights.
That really would be something Pam, but don’t hold your breath!!