The International Criminal Court’s probe of Israel will likely take roughly a year and a half to complete, according to a former chief prosecutor for the ICC.
Luis Moreno Ocampo, an Argentinian judge who served as chief prosecutor for the ICC from 2003 to 2012, spoke with Israel Hayom in an interview published Monday morning, following the ICC’s decision Friday to launch a probe into war crimes allegations against Israel.
Ocampo said that the decision of the ICC to authorize the probe against Israel hinged on the shift in the United Nation’s position regarding the Palestinian Authority.
During his tenure as chief prosecutor at the ICC, Ocampo said the court had decided not to open the probe against Israel, rejecting the PA’s petition “because at the time, it wasn’t a state,” and thus did not have standing.
But, Ocampo continued, in 2015, the United Nations General Assembly changed its designation for the PA from that of observer state to member state.
“According to the ICC, Palestine is a state. It wasn’t decided by judges but by the states because it’s not a political issue.”
Now that the investigation has been authorized, Ocampo said, it will take roughly 18 months to complete.
Israel lambasted the decision, arguing that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the case, since there is no State of Palestine.