The International Criminal Court building
The International Criminal Court buildingReuters

In practice, as the ICC well knows, it is not upholding the rule of law. On the contrary, the ICC is stimulating terrorism.

We at Mattot Arim are asking the ICC: Do you know, or care, that loaded words like “illegal” and “crime”, hurled at Israel, have long been a direct inspiration for terrorist groups?

Have long been used to justify murder and violence?

Get this timeline:

Suicide bomber kills 2 in Netanya, 2005.

Hamas: "A natural response to crimes by the occupation."

9 killed in Tel-Aviv, 2006.

Hamas: "Natural result of continued Israeli crimes".

3 killed in Eilat, 2007.

Islamic Jihad: "Natural response to continued crimes by the Zionist enemy".

2 shot to death in Nitzanei Shalom, 2008.

Al Quds Brigades: Natural response to “ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people”.

Terrorist kills 13 year old with ax, injures 7 year old, 2009.

Islamic Jihad: “Natural response to crimes of the occupation.”

Family with 3 month old baby slaughtered in their beds, 2011.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades: "Natural response to the occupation crimes".

British national killed, 30 injured by Jerusalem Convention Centre bomb, 2011.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad: "Natural response to Israeli crimes".

Tel-Aviv bus bombing injures 15 in 2012.

Hamas: "Natural response to the occupation crimes”.

4 worshippers slaughtered in Jerusalem synagogue, 2014.

Islamic Jihad: “Natural response to crimes of the occupation”.

Baby murdered in Jerusalem, 2014.

Hamas: “Natural response to crimes of the occupation”.

100 missiles shot at southern Israel, 2014.

Hamas: "Natural reaction" to "Israeli crimes".

12 hurt in Tel-Aviv stabbing attack, Jerusalem ramming attack, 2015.

Hamas: “natural response to the crimes of the occupation”.

20 injured in bus bombing, 2016.

Hamas: “Natural response to occupation's crimes”.

6 injured in Petah-Tikva, 2017.

Shiite News: “Natural response to Israel’s crimes”.

2 Druse officers killed.

Hamas: "Natural response to Zionist ongoing crimes".

Rocket fired on Israeli kindergarten, 2018.

Hamas: “Natural response to Israeli crimes”.

Rockets fired at Israel, 2019.

“Jerusalem Brigades”: “Natural response to crimes of Zionist occupation”.

ICC personnel, and funders, please note: Up till now, the above have been ghoulish rogue statements. By falsely accusing Israel -- you’re gentrifying them!

We are spouting real legal facts, the ICC may protest. Yet we say, of course you’re not. A former dean of USA's No. 1 law school historically wrote in the New York Times that "Israel has an unassailable legal right to establish settlements in West Bank." To be sure, Judea-Samaria is a complex issue, legally. So yes, there is an opposing legal view, by other experts.

But it is legal for a sovereign state, like Israel, to choose one legal viewpoint over another. Why? Because that is what being sovereign means, under international law: being legally entitled to select one legal approach among several. For plucky Israel to select the legal approach which says that "Israel has an unassailable legal right to establish settlements in West Bank" – is legal.

So, ICC. Maybe up till now, you’ve simply been irresponsible or naïve. But now – you’re aware of the above fact pattern. Mattot Arim’s archives are striking again, exposing to you an inconvenient fact pattern you don’t want to know about: that "settlement illegality" rhetoric is used by terrorist groups to justify actual acts of murder.

The fact is that even when babies are slaughtered by terrorists, the official response of terrorist groups, over and over again, is that the heinous murder is supposedly a “natural response” to supposed “crimes" committed by Israel.

So you are dangerously misinforming the world about Israel’s legal situation.

And the misinformation you are churning out, can and will directly inspire terrorism.

Here’s more proof – a hot of the press Hamas statement. Hamas “welcomed” your ruling this week, ICC. And here’s what they added, in a written statement: “We call to use all means to stop Zionist terror and crimes against the Palestinian people”.

Is anyone in the ICC pretending not to understand what a terrorist group means by the words “all means”? If you, the ICC, continue to directly create motivation for terrorism, then who is doing something wrong – Israel or you, the ICC? If you continue – you are signalling that you are not a court. That you are an organization irresponsibly demonizing the innocent, while absolving the guilty by omission.

For as long as you continue this anti-justice, our organization and others will call for you to be defunded. You are not combatting criminality. You are, instead, encouraging criminality, and barbarism – as the above quotes clearly show.

Responding quickly to yout decision to “investigate” Israel for “crimes”, Mattot Arim, our Israeli NGO, has immediately gone on the offensive. We’re distributing information which turn the tables on the ICC.

Read it. Learn.

Susie Dym is volunteer spokesperson for Mattot Arim, an Israeli NGO working toward peace-for-peace since 1992