ICC Rejects Jurisdiction of "Palestine" In Lawfare Defeat Of NGOs

PRESS RELEASE
April 3, 2012
Contact: Jason Edelstein
NGO Monitor
+972-52-861-2129
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Lawfare Defeat for NGOs at ICC

Prosecutor's Office rejects jurisdiction of "Palestine," echoes
NGO Monitor's legal brief 

JERUSALEM - In a key defeat for NGO "lawfare" in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) today decided that it does not have jurisdiction to begin an investigation over cases related to the 2008-09 Gaza War because "Palestine" is not a state. In January 2009, the Palestinian Authority (PA) filed a letter with the Court, purporting to accept the ICC's jurisdiction in order to bring war crimes cases against Israeli officials, notes Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, which was involved in the case from the outset.


"Throughout this process, the ICC - created to punish the worst perpetrators of war crimes and mass murder - was exploited by several EU- and European-government funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which intensively lobbied the OTP as part of their campaign to attack the legitimacy of the State of Israel," says Anne Herzberg, legal advisor for NGO Monitor. "The NGOs Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Al Haq, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l´Homme (FIDH), and Adalah campaigned at the ICC in support of the Palestinian Authority's political goals. This clearly was contradictory to the spirit and substance of peace negotiations."

On behalf of NGO Monitor, Herzberg submitted a legal brief on the case. The brief argued that the ICC's jurisdiction is defined by the 1998 Rome Statute, which makes clear that only states can accept the Court's jurisdiction. The Statute was adopted after years of careful diplomatic negotiations, and allowing the PA to fall under the Court's jurisdiction would have essentially amounted to a re-writing of the Statute. In addition, the brief argued that, contrary to claims by NGO proponents of the PA initiative, the ICC was not established as a court of universal jurisdiction, and NGO attempts to transform it into such would be legally improper. The OTP used similar arguments to support its decision.

"The fact that the case even proceeded this far was clear legal overreaching, but it shows the strength of NGOs that lead the de-legitimization and demonization campaigns against Israel," adds Herzberg. "The OTP's decision today is a strong rebuke to these NGOs, their political agenda, and their campaign to isolate Israel from the international community," notes Herzberg. "International arenas are routinely hijacked for political purposes, but today's decision was markedly different."

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