May
18
2014
Daoud Kuttab
Since the breakdown of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and the reconciliation agreement between the West Bank and Gaza leaderships, Palestinians have been considering an important question: Will the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) apply to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), and when would be the right time to do so?
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, former chief ICC prosecutor, has said that UN recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state has changed Palestinians’ legal status vis-a-vis The Hague-based court. In a May 12 interview with Al-Monitor, Moreno-Ocampo encouraged the Palestinians to join the ICC. He said, “The presence of the ICC in the region will encourage the sides to think creatively about how to solve their problems in their bilateral relations.â€
While Palestine can legally join the international court, it is not clear that it wishes to do so, especially considering the possible reactions by the Israelis who might face trial for war crimes if the process is completed. On the other hand, given the experience of previous years, Palestinians are now convinced that even if Israel and the United States scream and shout about such a move, it is unlikely to turn the tables on the Palestinians for taking this nonviolent action. Similar threats were made when the PLO asked the United Nations for recognition and when it recently approved the reconciliation with Hamas.
Pressure to join the ICC is not only coming from Palestinians, but also from major international human rights organizations, 17 of which, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to join the court. In a May 8 statement, they noted that if the state of Palestine “signed up to the Rome Statute of the ICC, the Court would have jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on Palestinian territories and by its nationals elsewhere.” Continue Reading »
May
18
2014
By Daoud Kuttab
Mahmoud al-Ramahi is secretary-general of the Palestinian Legislative Council, an Italian-educated doctor and the father of five. Ever since taking this position after the Hamas electoral victory in 2006, he has suffered continued detention at the hands of Israeli occupation forces. He was last re-arrested in Nov. 12, 2012. He had been released five months earlier after a series of repeated administrative detentions. He is currently held in the Ketiziot prison in the Negev desert without charges.
Mazen Natshe, father of three, was re-arrested Aug. 26, 2013. He had spent just five months free before that, after 41 months of continuous administrative detention.
Salem Dirdisawi, from al-Bireh, was arrested April 28, 2014, and is held in solitary confinement in the Ayalon prison.
Ahmad Rimawi was 18 when he was arrested in November 2012 and is the youngest Palestinian administrative detainee on hunger strike. He is being held in the Negev.
The above is a small sample of Palestinians held by Israel without charges, generally referred to as administrative detainees. According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, 186 Palestinians are currently being held without charges.
About 140 of these prisoners declared a new hunger strike on April 24 demanding an end to a situation internationally recognized as illegal. A campaign to support the striking prisoners has spread from Palestine all over the world, with a high visibility on social media. On May 8, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners joined their fellow inmates in a one-day supportive hunger strike. Daily protests are ongoing in Palestine and many Arab countries such as Jordan. Imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti has also joined the hunger strike. Continue Reading »
