Hague Court Under Western Pressure Not To Open Gaza War Crimes Inquiry
Source: Guardian UK
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
theguardian.com, Monday 18 August 2014 03.00 EDT
The international criminal court has persistently avoided opening an investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza as a result of US and other western pressure, former court officials and lawyers claim.
In recent days, a potential ICC investigation into the actions of both the Israel Defence Forces and Hamas in Gaza has become a fraught political battlefield and a key negotiating issue at ceasefire talks in Cairo. But the question of whether the ICC could or should mount an investigation has also divided the Hague-based court itself.
An ICC investigation could have a far-reaching impact. It would not just examine alleged war crimes by the Israeli military, Hamas and other Islamist militants in the course of recent fighting in Gaza that left about 2,000 people dead, including women and children. It could also address the issue of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, for which the Israeli leadership would be responsible.
The ICC's founding charter, the 1998 Rome statute (pdf), describes as a war crime "the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies".
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/aug/18/hague-court-western-pressure-gaza-inquiry
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jwirr
(39,215 posts)the leader of the world. My ass.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)those that say otherwise.
Liberal_from_va34
(50 posts)And yet so many of us still buy into the propaganda of our country being the "greatest nation on earth". What malarkey.
This is NSA's real function...to tap the phones of ICC members to find embarrassing details about them and then threaten to make them public if they don't "go along".
wildbilln864
(13,382 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)
cstanleytech
(26,319 posts)just my opinion. 
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)are stopping the ICC from investigating Syria. I don't see anyone here complaining about that as almost 200,000 have been slaughtered there.
lark
(23,155 posts)Course, the US will never let that happen as that would threaten the profits of the MIC and what's more important than that?
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)this problem.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)and have sunk like a stone. Nobody here seems to care.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)Purveyor
(29,876 posts)around here anymore. Lots of views but that is about it.
My morning business news is a great example of that, unfortunately but I keep posting them just the same.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)It used to be that DU was THE place to get latest news and commentary. Sadly, that's no longer true. However, if you want to see what the far left has to say about Israel, you can find literally hundreds of posts about that.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)I think our Western culture is at a point of decision...on the humane/inhumane continuum we're dangerously close to that slippery slope as shown on a bell curve. In every system, there is the point of vacuum, of hesitation, of preparation.
Or the moment of hesitation on a pendulum...A physics site's definition: The 'teeter point' doesn't have a special name though, it is often called xmax and at this point v = 0 and |a| = amax, that is to say it has a velocity of zero and a maximum accleration.
One can hope.
Trillo
(9,154 posts)One is local, the other global.
whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)
pampango
(24,692 posts)"An ICC investigation could have a far-reaching impact. It would not just examine alleged war crimes by the Israeli military, Hamas and other Islamist militants in the course of recent fighting in Gaza that left about 2,000 people dead, including women and children. It could also address the issue of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, for which the Israeli leadership would be responsible.
The ICC's founding charter, the 1998 Rome statute (pdf), describes as a war crime "the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies"."
Among the biggest contributors to the ICC budget are the UK and France, which have both sought to persuade the Palestinians to forego a war crimes investigation.
Our "American exceptionalists" on the right do not want the US bound by decisions of an international court or body. Apparently, politicians in Russia, China and India feel the same way.
Nice find, Purveyor.
olddad56
(5,732 posts)
dflprincess
(28,082 posts)supposedly because "we" have concerns about the lack of due process so the ICC does not have the authority to demand we hand Bush and the rest of his gang over.
I wonder, though, if any of our war criminals ventured into the territory of a country that does recognized the ICC if they couldn't be arrested and hauled off to The Hague?
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)though the heavens fall.
Uncle Joe
(58,412 posts)Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)PoutrageFatigue
(416 posts)....the longer they remain inactive/passive the less effective they become...
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)History shows that there will be no repercussions for the war crimes and in a couple years it will happen again.
cheyanne
(733 posts)This is a moment when public opinion has turned against both sides.
