RE: All The News Anti-Palestinian Posters Will Not Read Or Discuss
SUBTOPIC: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I Ruling
⁜→ P F Tinmore, Hollie, et al,
BLUF: I think you will find it surprising at many of the points he illuminates.
I can tell.
Do you question the competence of the Holy Land Five court? I would think not.
(COMMENT)
You do not have to listen to my layman's opinion. But I have a lot in common with the Dissenting Opinion written by Judge Péter Kovács (ICC-01/18-143-Anx1 05-02-2021 154/163 EC PT); he is one of the three Pre-Trial Chamber I Judges. While I am not as elegant or knowledgeable as he, and he speaks of many more questions about the ruling than I, many of the things he says are very similar to the issues I (and others) have raised in this forum. I think that Péter Kovács offer an opportunity (Primer if you will) for and Israeli Defense Team the issues the Prosecution is very on.
◈ I share the view that the Chamber’s competence is grounded in article 19(3) of the Statute.
◈ First Issue (‘whether Palestine can be considered “[t]he State on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred” within the meaning of article 12(2)(a) of the Statute’2). I note that the way the Majority Decision frames the First Issue is different from the way it was originally formulated in the Request.3In any case, I agree neither with the conclusion, nor with the Majority’s reasoning and analysis in reaching such a conclusion.
◈ Regarding the second issue (the geographical scope of the Court’s jurisdiction), again, I agree neither with the Majority’s conclusion nor with its reasoning.
◈ I find neither the Majority’s approach nor its reasoning appropriate answering the question before this Chamber, and in my view, they have no legal basis in the Rome Statute, and even less so, in public international law.
◈ In her arguments, the Prosecutor does not rely on positive (existing and binding) international law applicable vis-à-vista question of Palestinerelating to statehood and borders de lege lata, which is likely due to the scarcity or absence of such type of instruments. Instead, the Prosecutor refers to statements from soft law documents that are certainly favorable to Palestinians but are nevertheless non-binding.
◈ Of course, the Prosecutor does not state that a recommendation is binding. However, in the Palestinian situation, she apparently does not deem it important to distinguish what is binding from what is only a recommendation, a suggestion, or an opinion.
◈ The resolutions adopted by the Security Council and the General Assembly subsequently to resolution 67/19 far from prove a fait accompli, but rather present a reserved attitude vis-à-vis the actual status of Palestine’s statehood, despite the General Assembly’s undeniable sympathy towards the Palestinian situation.
Evidently - the
question as to whether or not The West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza can be considered hic et nunc (in 2020-2021) ‘the territory of the State’ according to well-established notions of public international law → is NOT settled yet. And in the 154 pages this becomes a problem for the Palestinians.
Most Respectfully,
R