A 25-year-old Syrian man has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Israeli embassy in The Hague in March, Dutch News reported on Tuesday.

The attacker, who was arrested minutes after the incident thanks to security camera footage, admitted to throwing an olive oil bottle filled with petrol and a lit piece of cloth at the building. The assault resulted in a fire on part of the embassy's facade and surrounding shrubbery but caused minimal damage, according to Dutch News.

During the trial, the man stated that his intention was to draw attention to the situation in Gaza. The Syrian-born suspect said to the court that he had personally experienced "children dying of hunger. It was a message to Israel: war is wrong, please stop." However, the court ruled that "he should have done this in a different, peaceful manner."

The court deemed the 2.5-year jail term appropriate due to the planned nature of the attack. Evidence revealed that three weeks prior to the incident, the perpetrator had traveled to The Hague with a bottle of petrol, intending to target the embassy, but ultimately did not carry out the act.

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Some of the external advisers on whom the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague based his decision to seek arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had already expressed anti-Israel views years before the Gaza war. This was revealed by an examination conducted by the international law expert, Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, head of the International Law Department at the Kohelet Policy Forum.

Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan wrote that he was "grateful for the advice of a panel of experts in international law," which he described as an "impartial group." This is an exceptional procedure in which the court also relies on external advisers before deciding on the issue. The purpose of the consultation is to enhance credibility regarding the decision.

In an op-ed he published in the Wall Street Journal, Kontorovich exposed that at least some of the experts mentioned by Khan had expressed negative views toward Israel long before the outbreak of the war.

For example, Prof. Kevin Jon Heller, whom Prosecutor Khan described as "independent," tweeted in 2020 that "two criminals (Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu) are conspiring to commit criminal acts against Palestine and the Palestinians." Heller has served as a special adviser on war crimes to Chief Prosecutor Khan for two years. On other occasions, Heller wrote that Israel practices "apartheid" against the Palestinians.

In 2015, he wrote that Israel is "committed to systematically depriving the innocent of their most basic rights," and is guilty of the "systematic oppression of the Palestinians." Heller dismissed arguments in favor of Israel as "fake law and propaganda."

Another adviser relied upon by Prosecutor Khan is Baroness Helena Kennedy, a member of the Labour Party and the British House of Lords. Kennedy had called for the ICC to prosecute Israel long before the Gaza war began. In March, she wrote, "The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has given a warning to Israel; now is the time for all of us to say: enough is enough." Kennedy accused Israel of war crimes since the beginning of the war, and she also claimed that there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip.

Another member of the advisory panel to the chief prosecutor is a lawyer named Danny Friedman, who admitted that he defines himself as a lawyer who happens to be Jewish, except when he condemns Israel – then he puts his Jewishness at the forefront. Ten days after Hamas's heinous attack, and before the ground operation had begun, Friedman had already accused Israel of war crimes. In November, he argued that international law required Israel to immediately cease its campaign, even while Hamas was holding hostages.

Kontorovich noted that the bias of these experts was systematic and completely one-sided. The prosecutor accused Israel of committing war crimes based on the advice of people who, when chosen, had already reached that conclusion.

He emphasized that the prosecutor's reliance on biased advisers contradicts the court's own rules. "The ICC's Code of Conduct for Prosecutors requires them to 'refrain from any activity which is likely to negatively affect the confidence of others in the independence or integrity of the Office.' The Code of Conduct says the 'impartiality' section requires 'refraining from expressing an opinion that could, objectively, adversely affect the required impartiality, whether through communications media, in writing or public addresses.' These rules don't apply to outside experts, but by selecting and relying on panel advisers who don't meet the ICC's own definition of impartiality, the prosecutor undermines his own."

Kontorovich stressed that Prosecutor Khan intentionally chose only advisers known not to accept Israel's position regarding the court's lack of jurisdiction. "It would have been easy for Mr. Khan to find experts with similar views who hadn't made their prejudices public. That Mr. Khan chose these advisers indicates that he valued certainty in the results above even the appearance of impartiality."

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Yossi Cohen, the former director of Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, allegedly issued threats to a chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) during a series of clandestine meetings several years ago in order to torpedo its investigation against Israel.

According to The Guardian newspaper, Cohen's covert contacts aimed to pressure Fatou Bensouda into abandoning a war crimes investigation regarding its conduct in the Palestinian territories by Israel. Cohen's undisclosed approaches to Bensouda occurred in the years preceding her 2021 decision to launch a formal probe into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinians. This investigation shifted into high gear in the wake of the ongoing Gaza war and earlier this month Bensouda's successor, Karim Khan, announced plans to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders.

Appointed as Mossad chief by Netanyahu in 2016 after serving as his national security advisor, Cohen personally led the spy agency's near-decade-long campaign to undermine the ICC, according to sources. His activities were authorized at the highest levels, justified by the perceived threat of prosecutions against Israeli military personnel. Sources familiar with the operation allege that Cohen attempted to "compromise the prosecutor or enlist her as someone who would cooperate with Israel's demands." One source described Cohen as acting as Netanyahu's "unofficial messenger."

Yossi Cohen, then Netanyahu's Mossad director, threatened ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Benaouda, as part of a (failed) Israeli effort to pressure her to abandon a war crimes investigation regarding the occupied Palestinian territories. (I too heard this.) https://t.co/0Ato74BIsn

— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي (@NTarnopolsky) May 28, 2024

Bensouda reportedly briefed senior ICC officials about Cohen's persistent and increasingly threatening behavior, including an alleged statement urging her to "help us and let us take care of you. You don't want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family."

The Mossad also obtained transcripts of secret recordings of Bensouda's husband, which Israeli officials attempted to use to discredit the prosecutor, according to two sources who spoke with The Guardian. While a spokesperson for Netanyahu's office dismissed the allegations as "false and unfounded," legal experts suggest Cohen's actions could constitute offenses against the administration of justice under the ICC's founding Rome Statute.

"Four sources confirmed that Bensouda had briefed a small group of senior ICC officials about Cohen's attempts to sway her, amid concerns about the increasingly persistent and threatening nature of his behaviour," the paper said. The revelations come as Khan warned he would prosecute "attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence" ICC officials. A court spokesperson confirmed Khan's office had faced "several forms of threats and communications that could be viewed as attempts to unduly influence its activities."

The Guardian said a spokesperson from Netanyahu's office issued the following statement: "The questions forwarded to us are replete with many false and unfounded allegations meant to hurt the state of Israel." Cohen did not respond to a request for comment. Bensouda declined to comment.

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In a scathing dissent, a United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) judge urged the court not to micromanage the conflict in Gaza and chided her colleagues for requiring Israel to work on the Jewish Shabbat while responding to a case brought by South Africa under the Genocide Convention.

ICJ Vice President Julia Sebutinde issued a lengthy nine-page dissenting opinion, challenging the court's ruling that called for Israel to cease its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. This ruling stems from South Africa's request, which accuses Israel of genocide in its ongoing war with Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Israel has vehemently denied these charges.

In her dissent, Sebutinde, who is Ugandan, objected to the court's handling of South Africa's request and the "incidental oral hearings." She stated, "In my view, the Court should have consented to Israel's request to postpone the oral hearings to the following week to allow for Israel to have sufficient time to fully respond to South Africa's request and engage counsel." Sebutinde noted that Israel's preferred counsel was unavailable on the dates scheduled by the court.

Furthermore, she expressed regret that "Israel was required to respond to a question posed by a Member of the Court over the Jewish Shabbat." She emphasized, "The Court's decision in this respect bears upon the procedural equality between the parties and the good administration of justice by the Court."

Sebutinde also argued that the court's initial ruling "does not entirely prohibit the Israeli military from operating in Rafah." She urged the court to "avoid reacting to every shift in the conflict and refrain from micromanaging the hostilities in the Gaza Strip, including Rafah" to maintain its judicial integrity.

Clarifying the ruling's scope, Sebutinde stated that it "partially restrict[s] Israel's offensive in Rafah to the extent it implicates rights under the Genocide Convention." However, she warned that the ruling is "susceptible to ambiguity and could be misunderstood or misconstrued as ordering an indefinite, unilateral cease-fire, thereby exemplifying an untenable overreach on the part of the Court."

The court's decision comes amid escalating tensions, as Norway, Ireland, and Spain recently announced their recognition of the Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor of a separate international court sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of Hamas.

Israel initiated its military operation in Gaza following Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, during which terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,200 individuals, predominantly civilians. The attack also led to the abduction of around 250 people. According to Israel, approximately 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 additional individuals.

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A self-described "anti-occupation" Israeli-Palestinian non-governmental organization has called for US sanctions on Defense Minister Benny Gantz over his designation of six Palestinian human rights organizations as terrorist groups.

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In a post to Facebook, Combatants for Peace said it was calling on US President Joe Biden to impose sanctions on Gantz, whom they accused of "political persecution" of the human rights groups, through the use of the Magnitsky Act.

Signed into law by then-US President Barack Obama in 2012, the Magnitsky Act grants the US government the authority to sanction individuals that violate human rights.

In addition, the organization further asked Biden to ignore Israel's terrorist designation of the human rights groups.

Combatants for Peace accused Gantz of deciding "to criminalize the six organizations without presenting any basis or proof, without a transparent procedure ...."

In addition, Combatants for Peace alleged that Gantz had "a personal interest in the matter: Some of the six organizations have raised personal accusations against him in the International Criminal Court in The Hague of committing war crimes during the 2014 attack on [the] Gaza [Strip]."

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No fewer than 16 former heads of state, high-ranking ministers, and security experts have reached out to the newly-appointed chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Karim Khan, and warned him that an investigation against Israel would be part of international efforts to delegitimize Israel and would make the ICC into a political entity, hurting its own standing.

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Signatories to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon that was initiated by the Friends of Israel Initiative and sent to Khan on Friday include former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper; former Australian Prime Minister John Howard; former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar; former president of Uruguay Luis Alberto Lacalle; former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.

Khan is due to take over from current ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in approximately two months.

The letter signed by the former leaders tells Khan that "we came together out of concern for the unprecedented campaign of delegitimization against Israel waged by the enemies of the Jewish State and supported by numerous international institutions."

In the letter, the former national leaders explain at length that Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, not a member of the ICC, and therefore the court has neither reason nor justification to try Israeli citizens.

"This view is strongly supported by the government of the United States of America, as well as the governments of Rome Statute state-parties Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Uganda, and leading international law scholars," it states.

The leaders point out that the ICC has mandate to investigate the "gravest crimes" as a court of last resort when national jurisdictions cannot or will not do so – a situation that does not apply to Israel, which it says has a "long-established and internationally respected legal system with a track record of investigating such crimes."

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It's very doubtful whether the Arabic phrase "muqawama salmiya" means anything to the judges of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, who this week greenlighted an investigation into Israel for alleged war crimes. Makuma salamiya ("peaceful, non-violent resistance"), as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has taken care to refer to the thousands of terrorist attacks and attempted terrorist attacks against Israelis, has prompted 534 major attacks in the last six years, and tens of thousands more "ordinary" attacks (meaning rock throwing and Molotov cocktails).

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In that six-year period, 85 Israelis were killed and over 1,000 wounded in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria in attacks that the Palestinians called "popular terrorism." In those same six years, Israeli security forces thwarted over 2,000 more major attacks planned as part of this "popular terrorism." These blood-soaked statistics, based on the idea of "peaceful, non-violent resistance," will probably not be investigated at The Hague.

For years, the terminology that defines hundreds and thousands of attacks and planned attacks as "popular resistance" has been a characteristic tool of Palestinian spokespeople. It is even anchored in two strategic decisions by the Fatah movement. The first was made at the organization's sixth conference, held in August 2009, which adopted the strategy of "popular resistance" – meaning terrorism. This strategy was re-approved at the Fatah's seventh conference in December 2016, which passed a decision to strengthen it. Abbas again approved these concepts at the UN in September 2017.

Since then, the PA leader – who initiated the ICC complaint against Israel – has not stopped talking about popular resistance, which is terrorism in every sense of the word. For years, the PA has defined terrorist attacks such as the murder of Esther Horgan in a grove near her home or the murder of Rabbi Shai Ohayon at Sgula Junction five months ago as "popular resistance."

This week, concurrent with the ICC decision, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center published a report summing up popular terrorism in 2020. It turns out that Abbas' "muqawama salmiya" led to 40 major terrorist attacks last year that killed three Israelis and wounded 46. Another 430 attacks were thwarted in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. Of the attacks that were prevented, 238 would have involved shootings, 70 would have been stabbings, 10 would have been car rammings, and 62 would have involved explosives devices. Another five plots included abductions.

COVID mitigates terrorism

These numbers, which are by no means small, still reflect a drop in the level of terrorism and its lethality in 2020 compared to the years 2015-2019. The late Col. (res.) Reuven Erlich, former head of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center who passed away two weeks ago, explained in a recent conversation with Israel Hayom that "the Palestinians – according to their own views – had supposedly good reasons to renew and increase terrorism last year." Factors for this include the Trump administration's peace plan, Israel's intention to declare sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria, and the normalization agreements Israel signed with a number of Arab states.

Erlich attributes the drop in Palestinian terrorism last year to Israeli security forces' pre-emptive capabilities, an ongoing decline in most of the Palestinian public's willingness to take an active part in terrorist activity, and anti-Israel protest.

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But no less important was the COVID pandemic, which appears to have influenced the Palestinians, as well. The public health and economic fallout, Erlich explains, kept the Palestinians busy, and even created another modern-day blood libel that falsely accused Israel of spreading the virus in the PA.

The drop in terrorism in 2020 can be seen in two main parameters. The first is the lower number of major attacks that were actually perpetrated: In 2015 that number stood at 171; in 2016, 142; in 2017, 82; in 2018, 55; in 2019, 34; and in 2020 – 40.

The second parameter is the lower number of thwarted planned attacks. In 2018 581 terrorist plots were foiled by security forces; in 2019, 564; and in 2020 – only 430.

The fact that the Palestinians are careful to refer to this as "popular" terrorism also has to do with the fact that most of the terrorists active in recent years, including 2020, were not affiliated with any terrorist organization. Most "popular terrorism" is perpetrated using unsophisticated weapons – knives, rocks, sharpened object, or cars. In 2020, like the two previous years, most of the terrorists had personal or nationalist motives, rather than religious ones, in sharp contrast to the wave of terrorist stabbings Israel witnessed from 2015-2017, when many of the attackers were spurred to action by the lie "Al-Aqsa is in danger" and felt "obligated" to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount. COVID, apparently, put a damper on religious fervor, at least as a motive for terrorism.

'One of the quietest years'

In 2020, religious ecstasy as a motive for committing a terrorist attack was replaced by various personal problems, like a poor grade on a math test (in the case of one terrorist who tried to stab soldiers in January 2020 at Gitai-Avisar Junction near Ariel), or a romantic disappointment, family quarrels, or domestic disputes or friction between children and parents, as well as financial distress. Most of these attackers took into account that they might not make it out alive after committing or attempting to commit the attacks. Some of them expressed a desire to die.

Once again, Palestinian society drew no distinction between the terrorists who acted out of nationalist motives and the ones who were mainly prompted by personal problems. The culture of martyrdom is still being nurtured, both through the glorification of martyrs, even in formal and informal Palestinian educational framework, and the generous salaried paid out to terrorists and their families. The PA also rebuilds the homes of terrorists that Israel demolishes as punishment, and PA representatives attend funerals of terrorists and pay condolence visits to families, conferring honor upon their families.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi defined 2020 as one of the quietest years Israel has seen on the security front, with few Israeli casualties, but it's unclear what we can expect from 2021. Along with mitigating factors like the war against COVID, renews security cooperation between the PA and Israel after the sovereignty plan was shelved; and Israel allowing some 100,000 Palestinian laborers to work in Israel, there are also factors that increase the possibility of a rise in terrorism. These include the dispute between Israel and the PA over the salaries paid to terrorists and their families and the upcoming PA parliamentary elections, which could spark violence between the various Palestinian factions that could be turned toward Israel.

Yet another factor is the "price tag" attacks against Palestinians carried out by right-wing Israeli extremists, which could cause things to go downhill. In 2021, like last year, the tracking and prediction tool that Israel's security forces operate on social media platforms will play a central role in thwarting planned terrorist attacks and deterring potential terrorists. This system has grown much more sophisticated since the 2015-2017 wave of "lone wolf" terrorism, and had help scupper hundreds of plans for terrorist attacks in the past few years. 

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Last Saturday, the justices of the International Criminal Court (ICC) took a major swipe at the Jewish state. They ruled that the ICC prosecutor is permitted to open a formal investigation of Israel for fake war crimes. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the decision referring to it as "pure anti-Semitism."

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Netanyahu added, "This court was founded to prevent atrocities like the Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish people, and now it is attacking the Jewish people's only state."

Netanyahu is absolutely right. The court's decision is bigoted at its core. To reach its decision, the judges had to ignore the 1998 Rome Statute on which it is founded. The Rome Statute makes clear that only states or the UN Security Council can petition the court for redress. And having ignored its own legal writ, the judges proceeded to take a knife to the very concept of international law. They applied a standard of behavior to Israel that is applied to no other state in order to single out Israel for legal proceedings that have no basis either in the court's specific mandate or in the law of nations.

The fact that Hamas – a terrorist group formally committed to the genocide of the Jewish people – published a statement applauding the court's ruling shows just how prejudicial the court's decision was. It is worth noting that every missile attack and suicide bombing Hamas terrorists carry out against Israel is a separate war crime under actual international law.

Hamas terrorists understand the racket the ICC is running against the Jews. The phony war crimes investigation is a practical application of UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 from 1975 which defined Zionism – the Jewish national liberation movement – as a form of racism and so rejected Israel's moral right to exist.

Although Resolution 3379 was rescinded in 1991, it is alive today in every UN agency where Israel is condemned on a daily basis for absolutely nothing. It is alive in the European Union which subjects Israel to systematic discrimination. And it is alive on the international left, whose members throughout the Western world vilify Israel at every turn – again, for absolutely nothing.

All of these forces understand that the point of putting IDF soldiers, commanders and Israeli civilians in the ICC dock for war crimes that never happened is to advance their goal of rescinding international recognition of the Jewish state's right to exist as a normal, sovereign state. They also know full well that simply by holding show trials of Israeli Jews, they will legitimize and expand support for Hamas' goal – Israel's physical destruction.

Around the time that Resolution 3379 passed, Henry Kissinger claimed there was nothing to worry about, really. Neither the United States, nor "in the last analysis Europe," would ever "negotiate over the survival of Israel," he said.

But an examination of the forces that are producing the ICC Inquisition makes it clear that Kissinger was naïve – at least as far as Europe is concerned.

To be sure, the primary party responsible for the Jew hating charade at The Hague is the ICC itself. The political Star Chamber has an institutional interest in pursuing fake charges against Israel. In 2017, the African Union passed a resolution calling for its member states to withdraw from the ICC. The AU resolution stemmed from what African leaders viewed reasonably as the ICC's prejudicial focus on their governments. When the resolution passed, nine out of ten cases before the court dealt with African states. The governments of Africa were fed up with the court's discrimination.

Shortly thereafter, ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda completed her preliminary examination of Israel and submitted her request to the judges to open a formal war crimes investigation. The chain of events gives up the game. The ICC needs a non-African scalp. And Israel fits the bill. The Africans are satisfied that a nearly-Western state is being pursued. And Western states are happy because they don't consider Israel a member of their club.

In other words, Israel is the ICC's scapegoat that it can sacrifice to secure its organizational interests.

But as corrupt and depraved as the ICC's motivations for building a phony war crimes case against Israel are, the ICC couldn't act on its own. It needed three things to be done by others to enable its actions.

The first thing that had to be done to pursue fake charges against Israel was for the Palestinian Authority, which is not a state, to join the ICC as a state signatory of the Rome Statute. Since the PA is not a state, to pretend it is a state, the ICC needed UN cover. So in 2012, the PA applied for non-state observer status at the UN.

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Votes at the ICC and the UN General Assembly passed overwhelmingly. The Czech Republic was the only EU member state that opposed the legally baseless moves.

To be clear, the PA's purpose in signing the Rome Statute and requesting the upgrade of its UN status was known to all involved. All the states that approved these moves – or failed to oppose them – knew that their actions were setting the conditions for the ICC to try innocent Israeli soldiers, commanders and civilians for war crimes that were never committed.

The State of Israel itself cannot be formally placed on trial. The ICC, as a supposedly legal body, needed complaints against actual named Israelis. And it needed "evidence," and "testimonies" to give weight to the allegations. Over the past several years, NGO Monitor has documented copiously how two different sets of non-governmental organizations have run this part of the show. First, international groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have run a major lobbying effort against Israel for decades. Its purpose is to deny Israel the right to self-defense. In recent years, those efforts have focused specifically on pushing the PA to join the ICC even though the act was a material breach of the PA's signed agreements with Israel. They have published spurious allegations of Israeli "war crimes," lobbied for an upgrade in the PLO's status at the UN, and for the ICC to charge Israel with war crimes.

The second type of organization behind the ICC effort are local Israeli and Palestinian NGOs. Israeli groups including B'stelem, Yesh Din and Breaking the Silence and Palestinian groups including the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq, Al Dameer and Al-Mezan delivered the goods. European governments including Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and Britain contribute millions of euros annually both separately and under the European Union aegis to these and other groups.  As NGO Monitor has documented, in recent years, a portion of those contributions has been specifically directed towards actions to facilitate the ICC actions against Israel. Without the support of European states and the EU, these groups would lack the financial wherewithal to run campaigns to demonize Israel and to promote ICC witch hunts against its soldiers, officers and civilians.

Finally, the ICC would not have opted to discredit the entire concept of international law by going after Israel for non-existent crimes if it believed that it would be penalized for doing so. In 2015, when Bensouda initiated her preliminary examination, Israel asked ICC funders to retaliate against the move by defunding the institution. Israel's request was rejected.

More than 60% of the ICC's budget is funded by European governments. Germany is generally the ICC's largest or second largest funder. A German government representative quoted in a Reuters' report of Israel's request said that Germany "couldn't imagine" scaling back, much less defunding of the political court.

So without the actions of European governments like Germany, Holland, Switzerland, France, Norway, Britain and Sweden, and without the EU as a whole – the ICC would never have opened its bigoted proceedings against Israel, the purpose of which is to reject Israel's right to exist. At every point, the Europeans had the power to prevent or end the ICC's bigoted treatment of the Jewish state. And at every point, the Europeans took active steps to ensure that the targeting would continue. Indeed, by funding and directing the efforts of the likes of NGOs Breaking the Silence and Al-Dameer, (which is affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group), the Europeans were the puppet masters directing the passion play.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas criticized the ICC's ruling move in a statement he put out shortly after it was announced. Maas didn't condemn the immorality of pursuing fake war crimes allegations against an innocent nation. Rather, Maas's criticism focused on the fact that despite the efforts of the ICC and the UN, the fact remains that "Palestine" is not a state. "The court has no jurisdiction," he tweeted, "because of the absence of the element of Palestinian statehood required by international law."

This is, to be sure, the key legal problem with the ICC's ruling. But the much larger problem with the judges' decision is that the investigation is a politically motivated effort to cause material harm to Israel, as the Jewish state. Israel abides scrupulously by the rules of war, and everyone knows that. The reason German politicians like Maas should oppose the ruling is because the court's behavior is part of a larger effort to undermine international acceptance of the Jewish people's right to their state. But then, as a major funder of both the ICC and the NGOs behind the fictitious, libelous allegations, and as a state that failed to oppose the Palestinians' legally groundless bids for the status of state at the ICC and the UN, Maas clearly doesn't have a problem with the immorality of the enterprise. To the contrary, he is playing a key role in moving it forward.

In a way, the ICC's efforts to harm the Jewish state is a modern-day version of the Dreyfus trial. The Dreyfus trial was an anti-Semitic reaction against France's decision to grant the full rights of citizenship to French Jews in the framework of the Emancipation. Anti-Semitic officers in the French General Staff needed a scapegoat to blame for acts of treason they had committed. By choosing Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, an Alsatian Jew, for the role, the officers enjoyed the cover and support of powerful anti-Semitic clerics, anti-Semitic intellectuals and newspaper publishers, and anti-Semitic politicians. All of the figures involved realized that by framing Dreyfus "the Jew," they advanced their efforts to discredit the idea that Jews could be full partners in French public life.

The big difference between the people that produced and directed the blood libel against Dreyfus 125 years ago and the people that are producing and directing the blood libel against Israel today is that in France at the turn of the 20th century, people were proud to attack Jews openly. Today, their contemporary successors prefer a passive aggressive approach. They pretend to oppose the efforts to delegitimize and criminalize the Jewish state while they pay for and direct them.

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The Hague District Court ruled that the case filed by Ismail Zeyada can't proceed because the commanders, including high-profile former IDF chief Benny Gantz, have immunity.

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Zeyada was attempting to sue Gantz, who is now a prominent Israeli politician, and former Israeli air force commander Amir Eshel.

Zeyada brought the case in The Hague because he argued he can't successfully hold Israeli military leaders accountable in Israeli courts.

Presiding judge Larisa Alwin said the court can't hear the case because the commanders "enjoy functional immunity from jurisdiction."

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Two years ago, Jerusalem District Court Judge Moshe Drori ruled that the PA was responsible for abuses against 52 Israeli and Palestinian citizens from Judea and Samaria that included murder, abduction, imprisonment, torture, and rape.

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The ruling described horrific violations: the victims were subjected to electric shocks, being hanged upside down for long periods of time, having molten plastic being poured on their bodies, having their fingernails and teeth pulled out, forced sterilization, denial of sleep and food, and the murder and rape of their relatives. One account described how a premature baby related to one of the victims was intentionally removed from its incubator.

Following the ruling, the court ordered the PA to pay the plaintiffs compensation totaling 14 million shekels ($3.9 million) for denying them their liberty and an additional 1.5 million shekels ($410,000) in court costs.

The Jerusalem Institute for Justice and attorney Barak Kedem, who represented the plaintiffs in the Jerusalem District Court, joined forces in order to "show the world the brutality with which the Palestinian Authority treats its prisoners."

On Monday, the filmed testimonies of the former prisoners are slated to be shown at the International Criminal Court. Attorney Uri Morad, head of the international law department at the JIJ, explained that "In February, we contacted the ICC at The Hague and asked for a criminal probe into PA President Mahmoud Abbas on suspicion of crimes he [allegedly] perpetrated against his own people, including an ongoing and extensive spree of murder, torture, and illegal imprisonments against the Palestinian population.

"The testimonies that will be presented tomorrow [Monday] demonstrate a well-oiled system that uses violent means to oppress the civilian population," Morad said.

Kedem added: "The fact that we have people here who experienced that hell should horrify any human. It doesn't matter what people you belong to or what your political opinions are … I hope that as a result of our appeal to The Hague and to world leaders, other countries will ask themselves whether they want to stay part of the system that sends money to the PA, and we hope that The Hague will hold the perpetrators of these atrocities to account."

One of the victims whose testimony will be shown at the ICC said, "I wished for death more than 20 times a day because of the suffering. The torture was awful. Once they sat me on an electric chair. I was sure I was going to die."

Another said: "The top guy showed me an explosives belt and said I would either wear it and carry out a bombing in Israel, or they would kill me right there."

Another Palestinian told the camera that he once entered Israel illegally with the goal of perpetrating a terrorist attack, but was badly hurt in a car accident. He was rushed to an Israeli hospital, where he was saved. The medical care he received in Israel prompted him to change his opinions and begin collaborating with Israel in its war against terrorism.

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