The Palestinian Authority (PA) will submit its first "war crimes" complaint against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1, a senior official told AFP on Monday.
"One of the first important steps will be filing a complaint against Israel at the ICC on April 1 over the Gaza war (last summer) and settlement activity," said Mohammed Shtayyeh, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The PLO for its part is a terrorist organization that had its international recognition as such removed during the 1993 Oslo Accords which created the PA - the PA's unilateral lawsuit against Israel is in breach of those Accords.
It has been noted that by turning to the ICC, the PA has left itself open to war crimes charges against it as well, particularly as PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction proudly boasted of firing rockets from Gaza at Israeli civilian centers last summer in a blatant war crime.
The lawsuit at the ICC also leaves the PA's "unity partner" Hamas, itself a terrorist organization with the genocide of Jews written into its very charter, open to investigation as well.
Regarding the charge of "settlement activity," it was thoroughly proven in the 2012 Levy Report that Israel's presence in its Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria is legal under international law.
The ICC announced in January that it was launching a "preliminary examination" into possible war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinian Arabs.
The probe was slammed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who said, “Israel rejects the absurd decision of the ICC prosecutor. It’s absurd for the ICC to ignore international law and agreements, under which the Palestinians don't have a state and can only get one through direct negotiations with Israel."