Media Releases

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council  (AIJAC) condemns and deplores the announcement by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor that an investigation will formally be opened into “The Situation in Palestine,” with a focus on alleged Israeli crimes in the “territory” of the non-existent State of Palestine.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s announcement of the investigation relies on the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber decision last month “that the Court may exercise its criminal jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine, and that the territorial scope of this jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” As AIJAC noted at the time, that 2-1 decision was “a legal witch-hunt against a democratic country with enemies at its border”, and was opposed by numerous democratic nations, including Australia and the US.

AIJAC’s Dr. Colin Rubenstein said, “Bensouda’s decision is an abuse of ICC jurisdiction and international law that undermines the ICC’s claim to be a supposedly independent and non-political international legal body, because it relies almost wholly on non-binding and thoroughly political UN General Assembly resolutions. More than this, it materially damages any hopes for a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ms. Bensouda is departing her position shortly, and we call upon her successor, British lawyer Karim Khan, to reconsider this ill-advised decision.”