Para 963 of the Report<\/cite><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Independent Review Body\u2019s reported noted at para 976 of the Report that although Article 36 of the Rome Statute required selection of the \u201cmost highly qualified candidates\u201d at the last election 8 candidates described as \u201cformally qualified\u201d, and 6 described as \u201cparticularly well qualified\u201d were elected.<\/p>\n
Until the Court has rectified the serious defects identified by the Independent Review Body and can deliver judgments and rulings as an independent court without political interference the decision of Israel and the United States not to accept the Court\u2019s jurisdiction is justified.<\/p>\n
There have been two inquiries into Israel\u2019s alleged illegal activity conducted by well qualified and independent jurists. The first is the inquiry headed by Justice Richard Goldstone into potential war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity by both Israel and Hamas during the Gaza War of 2008-09 and the second was the inquiry headed by Sir Geoffrey Palmer of New Zealand relating to the Flotilla Incident on the 31st May 2010.<\/p>\n
Justice Goldstein concluded, on the evidence adduced and in the absence of any evidence from Israel, which had not taken any part in the inquiry, that Israel could have committed war crimes by deliberately targeting civilians. Following the report further evidence became available from Israel which resulted in Justice Goldstein concluding that during the conflict Israel did not intentionally target civilians and conceding that his earlier decision finding Israel guilty of war crimes was wrong.<\/p>\n
The panel headed by Sir Geoffrey Palmer relating to the Flotilla Incident of the 31st May 2010 concluded that Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza was legal according to International Law being imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea. The panel also concluded Israel was legally entitled to visit and search vessels attempting to breach the blockade and to capture a vessel found to be in breach of the blockade. Furthermore the panel concluded that enforcement may take place on the high seas and may be conducted by force if a vessel resists. It is concerning that news media both overseas and in New Zealand completely ignore Sir Geoffrey Palmer\u2019s conclusions and continually describe Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza as being illegal.<\/p>\n
The results of these two inquiries support the conclusion that Israel as a state is not guilty of any war crimes. Furthermore Israel has a legal system that deals with allegations of criminal misconduct under the rule of law. Israel\u2019s judicial system is highly regarded among objective jurists and scholars. Its Supreme Court is one of the best in the world. It repeatedly holds individual soldiers accountable for any violations of the law of war or international law in general. Under the Rome Treaty the ICC does not have jurisdiction over acts committed by any nation which has a legal system that deals with allegations of criminal misconduct under the rule of law. Israel clearly has such a system.<\/p>\n
Hamas doesn\u2019t even purport to accept the rule of law. It boasts about its desire to kill civilians, including babies, women and the elderly. It targets schools with rockets and terror tunnels. It glorifies terrorists who have killed civilians. Both the Goldstein inquiry and the inquiry of Sir Geoffrey Palmer concluded Hamas to be guilty of war crimes by firing rockets aimed at civilian targets in Israel. Hamas show complete contempt for such rulings by continuing to fire rockets at civilian targets in Israel.<\/p>\n
Since September 2000 Palestinian organizations and individual Palestinian attackers have been responsible for killing approximately 1,000 Israeli civilians. In the last few years more than 50 Israeli civilians have been murdered and over 1000 injured in an endless chain of shootings, stabbings and a myriad of other forms of violence which have systematically targeted Israeli civilians of all ages. Under official Palestinian Authority legislation Palestinians incarcerated for nationalistic or religiously motivated crimes against Israelis are automatically awarded a monthly stipend starting at approximately USD400 for the less serious offences and reaching up to approximately USD3,429 for those serving a sentence of over 30 years. Additionally on their release they are entitled to a one sum bonus which can reach USD25,000 and sometimes more. Regular Palestinian criminals such as robbers, thieves and other forms of non-politically motivated crimes interned in Israel are ineligible for support under this program. Consequently these payments cannot be described as welfare but more accurately as \u201cpay for slay\u201d.<\/p>\n
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority do not see themselves as being obligated by humanitarian International Law. On the other hand the Israel Defense Forces has developed an array of means to strike the balance between its obligation to protect its citizens and its commitments to act within the framework of International Law. These measures include issuing alerts in combat zones, including leafleting, placing calls, and sending warning text messages, as well as the \u201cknock-on-roof\u201d measure involving the dropping of an empty shell on rooftops in order to allow civilians the opportunity to evacuate before an airstrike or artillery strike take place.<\/p>\n
The investigation authorized by the ICC will do nothing to advance a peaceful solution to this unfortunate conflict. The only way to advance the prospect of a peaceful solution is for the parties to enter into direct negotiations and for the Palestinians to agree on a two state solution which involves accepting the legitimacy of the State of Israel. The Palestinian leadership should desist from continuing the armed struggle and follow the example of the late Nelson Mandela. He negotiated a peaceful transfer of power without resorting to violence establishing the rainbow nation with equal rights for all notwithstanding their religious or ethnic backgrounds. Instead of prosecuting and punishing the leaders of apartheid he established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.<\/p>\n
\n- David Robinson Former Associate Judge of the High Court of New Zealand and Honorary Consul for Israel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 5th February 2021 Pre Trial Chamber 1 of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a majority decision ruled that the ICC is permitted to exercise jurisdiction over events occurring in the West Bank and Gaza Strip thus authorizing the ICC Prosecutor\u2019s investigation into allegations of war crimes in these areas. The State of Israel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[449,447],"tags":[619,349,756],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5577,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions\/5577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}