‘Deal of the Century’ may spur ICC case on Jewish settlements

Analysis: With the Trump State Department’s policy on Jewish settlements a direct contradiction to previous administrations, Israeli leaders may find themselves facing an ICC prosecutor who contends there’s a ‘reasonable basis’ to believe building Jewish neighborhoods is a war crime.

By the Associated Press

 

Emboldened by a supportive White House, Israel appears to be barreling toward a showdown with the international community over its half-century-old settlement enterprise in the West Bank.

With the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court poised to launch a war crimes probe of Israel’s settlement policies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday announced plans to move ahead with the potentially explosive annexation of large parts of the West Bank, including dozens of settlements.

Donald Trump announces his ‘Deal of the Century’ with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Tuesday 28, January 2020 – Photo: Israeli GPO

He spoke in Washington as President Donald Trump unveiled a Mideast peace plan that matches Netanyahu’s stance and undercuts Palestinian ambitions.

This confluence of forces could make 2020 the year that finally provides clarity on the status of Israeli settlements and the viability of a two-state solution.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, a patron of the settler movement, said as he urged Netanyahu to immediately annex all of Israel’s settlements.

Israel’s Defense Minister, Naftali Bennett. – Photo: Gideon Sharon, Israel’s GPO

“Now the campaign is moving from the White House to the Cabinet room in Jerusalem,” he said. “Take everything now.”

The Palestinians want the West Bank as the core of a future independent state and see the settlements there — home to nearly 500,000 Israelis — as obstacles to their dream of independence. The international community backs this view and overwhelmingly considers the settlements to be illegal.

Since capturing the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has slowly and steadily expanded its settlements while stopping short of annexing the territory.

This status quo began to change after Trump took office in early 2017. Surrounded by a team of advisers with close ties to the settlement movement, Trump took a more sympathetic line toward Israel and halted the automatic criticism of settlements of his predecessors. This resulted in a surge of settlement construction plans that are just getting underway.

“Over the next year and certainly two years, we’re going to see a sharp increase” in the settler population, said Baruch Gordon, director of West Bank Jewish Population Stats, a settler group. In its annual report, the group said the West Bank settler population grew last year to 463,353 people, in addition to some 300,000 settlers living in Israel-annexed East Jerusalem.

Jewish homes construction in ever-growing in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

“We’re here and we’re not going anywhere,” he said

The major turning point for Israel was in November, when the U.S. declared that it did not consider settlements to be illegal. That landmark decision appears to have played a key role in Netanyahu’s announcement last year that he plans to annex the Jordan Valley, a strategic area of the West Bank, and Israel’s more than 100 settlements.

Ironically, this warm U.S. embrace could prove to be Netanyahu’s undoing. Moving ahead with annexations is likely to trigger harsh international condemnations and possible legal action.

Last month, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, declared there is a “reasonable basis” to believe that settlement construction constitutes a war crime. Pending final approval from the court, she intends to open a formal investigation, a process that could cause deep embarrassment and discomfort for Israeli leaders.

Yuval Shany, an expert on international law at the Israel Democracy Institute, said annexation would “significantly” raise the risk of triggering prosecution at the ICC. Settlements are widely viewed as illegal based on the Geneva Convention principle that an occupying power is barred from transferring its population into war-won territories.

“That could be a relatively low-hanging fruit for the prosecutor to identify a specific act that is either part of the transfer or significantly aids and abets that transfer,” he said.

Israel contends Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention doesn’t apply in this case, contending Jewish civilians are simply returning, by their own considerations, to areas that have always maintained indigenous Jewish communities up until Jordan expelled them by force (racial cleansing) after their army attacked and occupied the area in 1948 (until 1967). – IsraelandStuff.com


While Israel does not accept the court’s authority, Netanyahu appears to be taking the threat of prosecution seriously. He has launched harsh attacks against Bensouda and the court, saying the case against Israel is “pure anti-Semitism.” He also has tried, with limited success, to rally international opposition to the ICC.

The Palestinians joined the ICC in 2015 after they were accepted as a non-member state at the United Nations. They then asked the court to look into alleged Israeli crimes in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, retroactive to 2014.

The date coincided with Israel’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip. In her announcement last month, Bensouda said her probe would look at Israeli military practices as well as the actions of members of the Hamas terror group in the 2014 war, when hundreds of rockets were fired at Israeli civilian areas, in addition to settlement activity.

Shany said Israel is much more vulnerable on the settlement issue than it is with regard to Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces has mechanisms to investigate alleged wrongdoing by its troops, and despite criticism that this system is insufficient, it has a good chance of fending off the ICC. When it comes to settlements, however, Israel will have a difficult time defending its actions.

While the court would have a hard time prosecuting Israelis, it could issue arrest warrants that would make it difficult for Israeli officials to travel abroad. A case in the ICC would also be deeply embarrassing to the government, Shany said.

“The big white whale is the settlements,” he said. “That would be a major PR disaster for the country.”

 

View original Ynet publication at:
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/BkriinAb8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ISRAEL

‘as a light unto the nations’