{"id":10332,"date":"2015-01-23T00:09:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T08:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=10332"},"modified":"2015-01-23T13:21:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T21:21:54","slug":"israeli-launches-campaign-to-discredit-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/01\/23\/israeli-launches-campaign-to-discredit-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel launches campaign to discredit inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2014. (photo from UN photo\/Amanda Voisard)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Israeli government has launched a public diplomacy campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court\u2019s recent decision to start an inquiry into what the Palestinians call Israeli \u201cwar crimes\u201d in the disputed territories.<\/p>\n

According to ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, the inquiry \u2013 which was initiated after a request by the Palestinian Authority \u2013 is not a formal investigation, but rather \u201ca process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation pursuant to the criteria established by the [ICC\u2019s] Rome Statute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently signed the Rome Statute in order to join the ICC after failing to get a UN Security Council resolution passed that called for Israel\u2019s withdrawal from the disputed territories by 2017.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s campaign against the ICC inquiry will focus on the fact that the because the charges were filed by the PA, which is not a state, the court has no authority to act. In addition, the campaign will point out the court\u2019s bias against Israel \u2013 a country on the frontline of the war against terrorism that makes sure to abide by international law by way of an independent legal system.<\/p>\n

The Israeli government decided to launch the public diplomacy campaign at an emergency meeting in response to the ICC decision that was convened by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The meeting, which took place at Netanyahu\u2019s office, was attended by Israeli security, legal and diplomatic officials.<\/p>\n

The ICC\u2019s decision to launch the inquiry into Israeli actions is \u201cthe height of hypocrisy and the opposite of justice,\u201d Netanyahu said on Sunday at the start of this week\u2019s cabinet meeting, two days after the court announced the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring my years of public service, both as UN ambassador and as prime minister, I encountered these kinds of events, but this decision by the [ICC] prosecutor is in a league of its own,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cIt gives international legitimacy to international terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister said Israel would fight the ICC\u2019s decision with every means it has available, including the enlistment of its allies. Along those lines, Israel is lobbying member states of the ICC to cut funding for the tribunal, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday. Israel, which like the United States does not belong to the ICC, hopes to dent funding for the court that is drawn from its 122 member states in accordance with the size of member states\u2019 economies, said Lieberman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia and in Germany simply to stop funding it,\u201d Lieberman told Israel Radio.<\/p>\n

Read more at jns.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2014. (photo from UN photo\/Amanda Voisard) The Israeli government has launched a public diplomacy campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court\u2019s recent decision to start an inquiry into what the Palestinians call Israeli \u201cwar crimes\u201d in the disputed territories. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[4341,2985,2983,2984,4330,1673,4359,2085],"class_list":["post-10332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-binyamin-netanyahu","tag-fatou-bensouda","tag-icc","tag-international-criminal-court","tag-israel","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-mahmoud-abbas","tag-palestine"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}