Spain argued that it abstained from the International Criminal Court’s investigation against Israel

Spain abstained from a vote on 30 December on a resolution that asked the international court to rule on the legality of Israel’s 55-year occupation of Palestine. The State Department defended this position in a written parliamentary response to which this newspaper now has access. “Spain maintains its firm commitment to the International Court of Justice,” the Foreign Ministry said. José Manuel Albares, Spain, along with the majority of the European Union Member States, adhered to the declaration proposed by Palestine in New York on 16 January, in which it reiterated its firm commitment to the International Court of Justice. international law and multilateralism as the axis of the international system”. In this declaration, in which Spain voted in favour, “they rejected the punitive measures imposed by the Israeli Government against the Palestinians and their leadership and society in response to the adoption by the General Assembly of a resolution seeking the opinion of the International Criminal Court.”

In this context, senior executives of the ministry this week Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani (Gaza, 1953) deals with the hundreds of war crimes committed against Israeli soldiers in The Hague with its own organization, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. At that meeting, they insisted on defending Spain’s support for the two-state solution, but did not justify why it abstained in the historic December vote. Other major EU countries, such as France, also abstained; Germany and the United Kingdom and the United States voted against; in favor of Belgium, Portugal or Poland. The resolution was finally approved by 87 to 26 and 53 abstentions.

“Spain abstained from the decision” he just wanted an advisory opinion on the nature of the professionIn an interview with EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA from the Prensa Ibérica group, Sourani is about settlement policy if it is a protracted and belligerent occupation.” Sourani is a lawyer based in Gaza and is internationally recognized as the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and the “Alternative Nobel” Right Livelihood. He is also a member of the International Commission of Jurists.

Israel and the International Criminal Court

The Palestinian struggle to try Israel’s crimes in The Hague tribunal has been a winding road. Finally, in 2021, the International Criminal Court ruled in 2021: It had the authority to prosecute crimes committed on Palestinian land (Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem). He opened an investigation into possible crimes committed by the military and politicians of the Israeli and Palestinian militias in the endless conflicts in the Middle East. Everything that has happened since 2015, when Palestine was recognized as a country bound by the Treaty of Rome in 2002, which formed the basis of the International Criminal Court. Palestinians want 2014 Gaza war included In that year Israel bombed the fenced strip, killing more than 2,200 people, mostly civilians, and displacing half a million, plus 66 Israeli soldiers killed.

Sourani and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights have been documenting potential cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity for years to present to the ICC. Photographs, plans of destroyed houses, data on missiles used, witness statements or details of the chain of command to identify the accusedfor example, Israeli Army commanders who ordered the bombing of densely populated civilian areas. They do everything on behalf of their clients, victims of bombing or occupation, or their relatives if they are dead. They then group them under specific headings before taking the case to international court: the 2014 attack on Gaza; Gaza blockade [cerrado por tierra, mar y aire por Israel]; the “looting” of Palestinian resources such as water; Palestinian lawyer explains his settlement policy, the thousands of illegal colonies that populate the West Bank.

However, progress in research is scarce and very slow. According to Raji Sourani, the new prosecutor, British Karim Khanstopped the lawsuit filed by his predecessor, Fatou Bensouda. “I firmly believe that Khan has neither the strength nor the will to further the investigation,” says Sourani. “He politicized the ICC and chooses cases himself. When Ukraine was invaded and occupied by Russia, she reacted perfectly, quickly… In less than two months she has a team of 53 people, has visited Ukraine seven times, gives daily statements and interviews. He did not say a word about Palestine.

It is complex that no one responsible for crimes against civilians in Israel (or Hamas) sits on the dock in The Hague. The majority of the 26 arrest warrants issued by the ICC in these two decades are for cases involving Africa or the former Yugoslavia. However, the collateral impact of an investigation or conviction is very high: puts the accused at risk of being arrested if they travel abroad. It is also an international moral rebuke that Israel seeks to avoid at all costs.