THE International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to unveil an online electronic platform to allow the Palestinians to sue Israelis who commit war crimes.
A senior official in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday the platform will enable people to submit multimedia complaints to the ICC.
Omar Awadallah, Assistant Foreign Minister for the United Nations and its Specialised Agencies, said Israel continued its racist policies, disregarding all international regulations that call for providing urgent protection for the Palestinians.
He told Voice of Palestine radio that this platform will enable people to submit complaints online to the ICC, supported by pictures and videos, that show the crimes of the Israeli occupiers against them, for the court to consider them, the WAFA news agency reported.
Awadallah stressed that there should be continuous interaction with the international community to force Israel to stop its daily crimes.
Israeli forces are launching raids on various cities of the occupied West Bank almost on a daily basis, under the pretext of detaining what they call ‘wanted’ Palestinians. The raids usually lead to violent confrontations with residents.
In fact, the Israeli regime has intensified its deadly crackdown on the Palestinians in the occupied territories over the past months.
On Tuesday the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called on the ICC to expedite an investigation into the crimes and violations of the Tel Aviv regime and bring perpetrators to justice.
Hamas’s legal department emphasised the urgent need for immediate action to stop Israeli violations against Palestinian civilians. Hamas has also called for international judicial intervention to stop Israeli crimes.
The resistance group pointed out that nine years have passed since Palestine’s accession to the Rome Statute and the ICC’s declaration of extending jurisdiction over the occupied Palestinian territories.
Meanwhile the Israeli regime has begun to hit out at Israelis who skip military reserve duty in opposition to its proposed judicial reform plan to bring in a Likud dictatorship.
Netanyahu affirmed on Monday that insubordination would not be accepted by the Israeli regime, pledging to ‘act against it and take all necessary steps’ to safeguard the Israeli state’s future. In fact, there has already been a circulation of petitions signed by thousands of reservists, declaring their intention to disobey orders.
Netanyahu’s reform plan, scheduled for approval next week, has been branded by many Israelis as a direct route to a military police dictatorship.
A letter published in the widely read Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, signed by 1,700 former military officers, has intensified the protest campaign by the Israeli opposition that has been ongoing for the past six months.
Israel’s Minister of Military Affairs, Yoav Gallant, recently described calls by military reservists to refuse duty over the regime’s judicial overhaul plans, as a ‘reward for our enemy’. Gallant, back in late March, publicly warned that the controversy over the reform was causing divisions within the military, posing a ‘real threat to Israel’s security’.
Netanyahu responded to Gallant’s warning by ordering his dismissal, which fuelled the protests, causing Netanyahu to temporarily suspend the legislation for three months and revoke the dismissal.
Opposition party leader Benny Gantz has accused Netanyahu of being insensitive to the fractures in Israeli society caused by the judicial reform. Gantz urged, ‘It’s not too late to stop and return to dialogue. A leader must make tough decisions – and it’s time to make them. Netanyahu, don’t tear the people apart.’
In another development, US President Joe Biden, in a show of support has extended an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House.
To their eternal shame, in the middle of this great crisis for Israel, when the Palestinians are fighting like fury for their national rights, the TUC Congress in the UK is absolutely silent and refuses to state publicly that it supports the Palestinian freedom struggle and the establishment of a State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.
The millions of trade unionists in the UK must take action to force the TUC to bar all Israeli goods and services from the UK. The TUC must give its full support to the Palestinian freedom struggle, including the armed struggle. The TUC must demand that the Palestinian state is established this year and that the British government recognises the State of Palestine!
