British Arab Lawyers’ Association

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• Court looks at whether Palestinians can bring case
• International pressure grows over conflict

The international criminal court is considering whether the Palestinian Authority is “enough like a state” for it to bring a case alleging that Israeli troops committed war crimes in the recent assault on Gaza.

The deliberations would potentially open the way to putting Israeli military commanders in the dock at The Hague over the campaign, which claimed more than 1,300 lives, and set an important precedent for the court over what cases it can hear.

As part of the process the court’s head of jurisdictions, part of the office of the prosecutor, is examining every international agreement signed by the PA to decide whether it behaves - and is regarded by others - as operating like a state.

GAZA LIES in ruins. After 22 days of ruthless Israeli aerial bombardment and ground assault, a survey of the carnage is as enraging as it is numbing: at least 1,285 Palestinians have been killed; 895 were civilians, including 280 children and 111 women. Another 167 of the dead were civil police officers, mostly killed on the first day of the bombing as they were graduating from a training course. Twenty-four hundred houses were completely destroyed, and 20,000 partially. Other infrastructure destroyed includes 28 public civilian facilities (ministries, municipalities, governorates, fishing harbors, and Palestinian Legislative Council buildings), 29 educational institutions (including Gaza’s Islamic University and American High School), 30 mosques, 10 charitable societies, 60 police stations and 121 industrial, and commercial workshops. There are reliable reports that Israel used the banned chemical weapon white phosphorus, which on contact with skin burns all the way to the bone.

…I asked a representative of the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) what the status was of the PA’s (not a signatory to the Statute of Rome) request that Israel (also not a member of the ICC) be investigated for crimes. The response was that the OTP first had to determine whether or not the PA was a “State”, which is what the Palestinian Justice Minister was claiming. After all, it was argued, the PA had “diplomatic” relations with approximately 60 countries, it was increasingly recognized as a State by the UN and its organs, and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbou, was described and treated as a President and Head of State whenever he visited other countries….

A visiting British parliamentary delegation on Tuesday expressed shock at seeing the enormity of destruction in the Gaza Strip and called for lifting the unjust siege and holding Israel’s leaders accountable for what they did against the Gaza people.

Head of the British delegation Richard Borden told a news conference held at the Ramattan press center in Gaza city that they came to Gaza to witness the impact of Israel’s aggression and to figure out what happened on the ground in order to know the best means to help the Palestinians in the Strip.