Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas met on Monday with the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, at the UN headquarters in New York.
The official PA news agency Wafa reported that Abbas informed Khan about what was described as the ongoing "aggression" of the Israeli "occupation" against the Palestinian Arab people, the "crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing" it is committing in the Gaza Strip and the human rights violations in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.
Abbas called on Khan to speed up the investigation of the "war crimes" he claimed are being committed by Israel in the war in Gaza, the "settler terror" in Judea and Samaria, the “human rights violations” of Palestinian Arab detainees and other "crimes" committed by Israel in the "occupied Palestinian land".
The PA chairman also stated that failure to punish the Israeli "occupation" encourages it to continue committing its "crimes" against the Palestinian Arab people who, he claimed, have been suffering for 76 years from "injustice, oppression, apartheid and ethnic cleansing".
Abbas also stressed the importance of the advisory opinion published by the International Court of Justice last July regarding the illegality of the “Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories”, and the need for the international community and the legal organizations of the United Nations to obligate Israel, “the occupying country”, to implement these decisions, as well as to implement the court decisions that demanded an end to the Israeli military attack on Palestinian Arab land.
The PA chairman noted that the "state of Palestine" will continue to work to obtain the status of a full member of the United Nations and the recognition of other countries of “Palestine”.
Khan in May filed a request for arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas leaders.
In August, Khan pressed the pretrial chamber to issue an urgent decision, reaffirming that the court has jurisdiction to investigate Israeli citizens. Earlier this month he urged the judges to expedite the decision.
Since Israel is not a member of the ICC, even if arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant are not at immediate risk of prosecution but the threat of arrest could complicate their international travel.
