Germany on Saturday said it would like to air its reservations and call into question the International Criminal Court at The Hague's authority to discuss matters pertaining to Judea and Samaria, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
The announcement was a welcome development in the fight against the Palestinian Authority's campaign to influence the ICC to investigate Israel for alleged "war crimes" in these areas.
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"Palestine," which filed the lawsuit, is not a state, and the ICC can only examine issues pertaining to states which are members of the ICC, of which Israel is not a signatory, Germany said. Therefore, the Palestinians cannot submit a lawsuit against it, as long as the PA is not recognized as a state.
In December, the ICC's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said a preliminary examination into alleged war crimes in the aforementioned territories, mainly involving the construction of Jewish settlements, opened in 2015, had provided enough information to meet all criteria for opening an investigation. With that, Bensouda filed a request with ICC judges for a jurisdictional ruling because of the contested legal status of those territories. The judges asked member states to voice their reservations on the matter. Germany, Australia and the Czech Republic stipulated their objection to the court's jurisdiction.
A German document given to the ICC said the court does not have jurisdiction in "the occupied Palestinian territories." The document concludes that the fact that the Palestinians have petitioned the ICC for state status is not sufficient and that it must be determined that "Palestine" meets the definition of a "state."
Germany stressed that the United Nations General Assembly resolution in November 2012 to accept "Palestine" as an observer state "could not have and does not determine whether Palestine has the status of a state according to international law."
On this basis, Germany concluded that "Palestine" does not and never has met the criteria of a state according to the ICC's convention, and therefore the [PA's] lawsuit [against Israel] must be rejected."
