Palestinian Authority (PA) chief negotiator Saeb Erekat announced on Thursday to James Rawley, the UN's Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, which international conventions the PA signed onto the day before in breach of the Oslo Accords.
Erekat announced that PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas in a Wednesday meeting not only signed onto the Rome Accords, allowing the PA to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) and sue Israel for "war crimes," but also signed "the state of Palestine" on to a whole slew of international conventions, as reported in Arabic by the official PA news source WAFA and listed below.
The PA similarly breached the Oslo Accords by signing international conventions back in April when it torpedoed the peace talks with Israel, a process of crashing the talks that was sealed when the PA signed a unity deal with Hamas.
It's most current move comes after the PA's bid at the UN Security Council unilaterally demanding recognition and Israeli withdrawals failed. Experts asses the ICC move would open the PA up to war crime suits for its involvement in terrorism against Israelis, and likely cause Israel and the US to drop their funding of the PA, effectively collapsing it.
Erekat told Rawley that the "state of Palestine," by signing onto the conventions, obligates itself to changes its laws in accordance with them. He also mentioned that the unilateral press at the UN was a "legitimate right" and expressed a desire to see "Palestine back on the map."
"We guard our people in every place, and the crimes committed against our people in eliminating them, settlements, destruction, and aggression against Gaza, they haven't passed statutes of limitations and those who commit the crimes need to deal with the results," Erekat said.
He added "we demand that the US consider our position, because as is the strength of a nation great so is the responsibility on it great."
"Palestine relies on international law, and therefore we demand that the US again consider its relations with Israel, stop treating it like a nation above the law and stand at the right-hand of international legitimacy regarding the end of Israeli settlement and eliminations," Erekat said.
"Whoever wants to defeat terrorism in the region must deal with the roots of the Israeli occupation as a preface to defeating terror," claimed Erekat, saying "settlements" will be the main focus of the PA's lawsuits at the ICC.
What did Abbas sign?
Erekat's announcement listed the conventions Abbas signed onto, prime among them the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the ICC; and the Declaration in the accordance with the Rome Statute of the ICC.
Others signed include: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents; Convention on the non-applicability of statutory limitations to war crimes and crimes against humanity; UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
There were more general ones signed as well, such as the Basel Convention on the control of transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal; UN Convention on the Law of the Sea; Convention on Biological Diversity; Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses.
Likewise the PA signed the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions...relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II); Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions...relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem (Protocol III); Convention on the Political rights for Women; Convention on the safety of the UN and Associated Personnel; Convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards (the New York Convention).
The Treaty On The Non-Proliferation Of Nuclear Weapons; Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects; and Convention on Cluster Munitions rounded out the list.