Palestinian President Signs Bid to Join ICC
by VOA News December 31, 2014
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a Palestinian request to join the International Criminal Court, a day after a bid for independence by 2017 failed at the United Nations Security Council.
Palestinians hope the move, certain to anger Israel and the U.S., paves the way for war crimes prosecutions against Israeli officials for their actions in the occupied territories.
"They attack us and our land every day, to whom are we to complain? The Security Council let us down - where are we to go?" Abbas told a gathering of Palestinian leaders in remarks broadcast on official television.
He had threatened to join the international court if Tuesday's Security Council resolution failed. Late Wednesday, Abbas also signed applications for Palestinian membership in 20 other international organizations.
Israel, US reaction
In response Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move would expose the Palestinians to prosecution over support for what he called the terrorist Hamas Islamist group.
"We will take steps in response and defend Israel's soldiers," Netanyahu said in a statement.
'The Palestinian Authority has more to fear, having formed a government with Hamas, a known terrorist organization and which like the Islamist State [group] commits war crimes,' Netanyahu said in a statement.
U.S. State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez said America strongly opposed the move and warned it would be 'counter-productive and do nothing to further the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a sovereign and independent state.'
Vasquez added, 'It will badly damage the atmosphere with the very people with whom they ultimately need to make peace.'
Leading up to the failed U.N. bid, Sweden recognized Palestinian statehood and the parliaments of France, Britain and Ireland passed non-binding motions urging their governments to do the same.
Tuesday's vote
Late Tuesday, though, the 15-member U.N. Security Council voted against a draft resolution that demanded Israel withdraw from the occupied territories.
There were eight votes in favor of the measure, two against and five abstentions. Australia and the United States voted against the resolution.
Even if the measure had received the nine votes needed from the council's 15 members, the U.S. vote against it would have effectively vetoed the resolution.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said that Israeli-Palestinian peace can only come from 'hard choices and compromises' and that the resolution would not move the sides closer to a two-state solution.
'We voted against this resolution not because we are indifferent to the daily hardships or the security threats endured by Palestinians and Israelis, but because we know that those hardships will not cease and those threats will not subside until the parties reach a comprehensive settlement achieved through negotiations,' Power said.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the U.N., criticized the council and said it is not fulfilling its responsibilities.
'The Security Council has once again failed to uphold its charter duties to address these crises and to meaningfully contribute to a peaceful and lasting solution in accordance with its own resolutions,' he said.
The draft would have given Israel until the end of 2017 to pull out of the West Bank and Gaza back to the pre-1967 war borders. It also called for Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace deal within one year.
The French news agency, AFP, quoted a Hamas spokesman criticizing Abbas, saying that the push for a Security Council resolution was a 'unilateral decision' and that he has 'taken the Palestinian decision-making process hostage.'
Earlier Wednesday, Netanyahu had praised the UN vote, thanking the United States, Australia, Rwanda and Nigeria. Rwanda and Nigeria were two of the five countries that abstained, joined by Britain, Lithuania and South Korea. Russia, China, France, Argentina, Chad, Chile, Jordan and Luxembourg voted in favor of the resolution.
Russian U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin called the council's rejection a 'strategic mistake' and accused the U.S. of monopolizing Israel-Palestinian peace talks.
Clarification: This story was updated to clarify that, while the U.S. vote against the Palestinian statehood measure had the effect of a veto, U.S. veto power was not needed because the resolution did not get the required nine votes to pass.
Some material for this report came from Reuters, AFP and AP.
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