PALESTINIAN Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has handed the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor the official outcome of the Palestinian investigation into Israel’s murder of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin last month.
During a meeting in The Hague with ICC Public Prosecutor Karim Khan on Thursday, al-Maliki urged that the criminals responsible for targeting civilians, children, women, journalists, doctors and other protected groups be brought to international justice.
‘Israel commits crimes in broad daylight, brags about its crimes, passes laws that promote war crimes and crimes against humanity, adopts budgets and sets policies, all in public, and kills in front of the cameras,’ the top Palestinian diplomat said.
‘What is the ICC Public Prosecutor waiting for in order to go ahead with a transparent and tangible investigation?’
Last month, the Palestinian foreign ministry announced that it had formally asked the ICC to investigate the killing of Abu Akleh.
During the Thursday meeting, al-Maliki said Palestinians shouldn’t become the victim of double standards and selective justice by the Western countries, which are the main backers of the Tel Aviv regime.
Al-Maliki further stressed the need for the ICC prosecutor to take concrete steps in dealing with the crimes of the Israeli occupying regime in Palestine, due to the gravity, size and nature of these crimes.
On May 11, wearing press attire, 51-year-old Abu Akleh was murdered in cold blood while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin. Later, her funeral was attacked by Israeli forces, including her pallbearers.
Journalists at the scene said there were no Palestinian fighters present when their colleagues were shot directly, disputing an Israeli statement alleging the possibility that it was Palestinian fire.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said it’s a crime committed in cold blood as part of the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists.
Palestinian journalist Shatha Hanaysha was next to Shireen Abu Akleh when she was killed by the Israeli regime forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on May 11th.
Palestinian journalists have warned that the already high rate of Israeli attacks against media workers in the occupied territories could even increase as long as Israeli troops receive impunity, as with Shireen’s death.
An estimated 50 Palestinian journalists have been killed since 2000 in both the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Palestine calls on the ICC to expedite an investigation into the crimes of the Tel Aviv regime and extremist Jewish settlers in the occupied lands, and bring perpetrators to justice.
Tel Aviv has been urged to fully cooperate with an independent inquiry into the slain journalist’s cold-blooded murder.
Western media and Western leaders have been accused of turning a blind eye to the breach of international law by the apartheid Israeli regime in the occupied Palestinian territories.
- The Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad has strongly denounced the Israeli premier’s latest visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), saying Abu Dhabi’s insistence on expanding ties with Tel Aviv amounts to turning a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinians.
Tariq Salmi, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad, in a statement on Thursday, said the Arab country’s growing proximity with the Israeli regime shows contempt for Palestinian lives.
‘Insistence on normalisation of ties and establishment of all-out relations with the Israeli enemy amounts to a denial of all forms of sufferings that Palestinians are experiencing as a result of the escalating Zionist aggression and terrorism in al-Quds and the West Bank,’ he said.
Naftali Bennett’s visit to Abu Dhabi on Thursday is his second official trip to the Persian Gulf country since the two sides formally normalised their ties in 2020 under the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by then-US president Donald Trump.
Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan were other countries to normalise ties with the Tel Aviv regime at that time.
A statement from Bennett’s office said the Israeli leader will meet UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and that the two will discuss ‘various regional issues’, with Iran likely to top the agenda.
In a video statement recorded before embarking on the trip, Bennett commended countries who drafted and adopted an anti-Iran resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors meeting in Vienna last Wednesday.
Last month, Israel and the UAE finalised a free trade agreement as part of the normalisation process between them, marking the first big trade accord between the Tel Aviv regime and an Arab country.
The pact was signed in Dubai on May 31st after months of hectic negotiations and drew sharp reactions from Muslim countries.
President of the UAE-Israel Business Council Dorian Barak said the trade pact defined tax rates, imports, and intellectual property, which would encourage more Israeli companies to set up offices in the UAE, particularly in Dubai.
The council predicts there will be almost 1,000 Israeli companies working in or through the UAE by the end of the current year.
The UAE officially inaugurated its embassy in Israel on July 14th, 2021. The inauguration ceremony was hosted by UAE’s ambassador to Israel Mohammad al-Khaja, with the regime’s president Isaac Herzog in attendance.
Israel also opened its embassy in the Emirati capital in June last year, which was inaugurated by the regime’s foreign minister Yair Lapid. He also inaugurated the regime’s consulate in Dubai during the same visit.
Israeli ministers had previously made low-profile visits to the UAE, but Lapid was the most senior Israeli official to visit the country, and also the first to travel on an official mission.
Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip with East al-Quds as its capital, view the normalisation deals as a betrayal of their legitimate and just cause.
Meanwhile, the Tunisian foreign ministry has in a statement refuted reports about back-channel diplomatic talks between the North African country and Israel, describing them as false.
The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement says the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia hold animosity toward anyone hostile to Israel.
The ministry in a statement on Thursday said some websites affiliated with the Israeli regime have been spreading these rumours in an attempt to harm the image of Tunisia and its unyielding pro-Palestine position.
The statement declared that Tunisia was not interested in establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, stressing that the country – on the official and popular level and as stated by President Kais Saied – will always support the Palestinian people in their struggle until their legitimate rights are restored, foremost of which is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital.
Back in April, dozens of Tunisian lawyers had denounced the Tel Aviv regime’s aggression against Palestinian people across the occupied West Bank and the Old City of al-Quds, calling on the North African country’s authorities to criminalise the normalisation of ties with Israel through a clear and transparent ruling.
In December 2020, the Tunisian foreign ministry reiterated that the country will not follow in Morocco’s footsteps to normalise diplomatic ties with Israel and that its position on the Palestinians’ legitimate rights will not be affected by any international developments.
Normalisation of ties with Israel constitutes treason, Tunisia’s president-elect has said.
The ministry, in a statement published on its Facebook page, dismissed media reports that Tunisia intended to establish ties with the Tel Aviv regime as unfounded and contrary to its principled and official position vis-à-vis the Palestinian issue.
‘Tunisia reiterates the firm stance of the President of the Republic, Kais Saied, who has emphasised on several occasions that the rights of the Palestinian people are inalienable, foremost among which is their right to self-determination and establishment of an independent state with al-Quds as its capital,’ the statement read.
Tunisians feel solidarity with the Palestinian people and strongly support their rights, which have been recognised by numerous United Nations resolutions and various international bodies, especially the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, it added.