Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Former ICC prosecutor says Palestinians can join court
Seventeen human rights organizations, among them Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, on May 8 called for the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to apply on behalf of Palestine to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).Coincidentally, the Hebrew University was at the same time hosting Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who until two years ago had served as the court’s chief prosecutor. Moreno-Ocampo was invited to Israel to speak at the Fried-Gal Transitional Justice Initiative, a program that seeks to introduce the process of transitional justice to future law students and leaders of Israel. That same week, on May 9, Israeli author Amos Oz stirred up a storm when he suggested that instead of calling Jews who harass the Arab minority “hilltop youth,” and their acts of vandalism “price tag,” the perpetrators should be called “Hebrew neo-Nazis.”
Three events — the push for Palestine to join the ICC, the wave of hate crimes against non-Jews and the international coverage of the impending visit of Pope Francis to Israel and the occupied territories May 24-26 — are causing sleepless nights for the heads of the Israeli security and foreign services. The Jewish zealots do not hesitate to hurt members of the Christian clergy, to desecrate monasteries and to blaspheme the name of Jesus.
Moreno-Ocampo, in an interview he granted Al-Monitor on May 9, stressed that recognition of Palestine by the UN General Assembly as a non-member observer state had changed the legal situation in the region. “In the past, the Palestinians asked to join the International Criminal Court, but I had no authority to determine whether they are, in fact, a state,” explained the jurist who became the ICC’s first prosecutor, a position he held for nine years. “Today they are recognized and can choose to turn to the court.”
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/luis-moreno-ocampo-international-criminal-court-palestine.html#ixzz31jxBamkg
?t=thumbnail_570