Occupied West Financial institution — On December 2, Eman Nafii was one in every of dozens of Palestinians invited to fulfill Prosecutor Karim Khan of the Worldwide Prison Courtroom within the occupied West Financial institution. Because the spouse of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israel, Nafi wished to talk to Khan about her husband and the Israeli occupation.
However Khan spent a lot of the assembly speaking, earlier than his workforce gave Nafi and different Palestinian victims simply 10 minutes to share their tales.
“Individuals received indignant. They informed him, ‘You might be coming to hearken to us for 10 minutes? How are we going to inform you about our tales in 10 minutes,” Nafi informed Al Jazeera.
“One of many ladies (with us) was from Gaza. She misplaced 30 members of her household within the (ongoing battle). She shouted, ‘How can we clarify this in 10 minutes.’”
Whereas Khan ended up listening to the victims for about an hour, Palestinians concern that he’s making use of a double commonplace by solely focusing his efforts on Hamas and ignoring the grave crimes Israel is accused of getting perpetrated over two months of a lethal battle.
Many have been upset that Khan accepted an Israeli invitation to go to Israeli communities and areas that Hamas attacked on October 7, whereas declining a suggestion from Palestinians to go to the tons of of unlawful Israeli settlements, checkpoints and refugee camps within the occupied West Financial institution.
Throughout his three-day go to, Israel additionally didn’t permit Khan to enter Gaza, the place Israel has killed greater than 17,000 individuals and displaced a lot of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants from their houses since October 7.
Most of these killed have been ladies and youngsters, whereas 1000’s of younger males at the moment are being rounded up, lots of them stripped and brought to undisclosed areas. Authorized consultants have warned that Israel’s atrocities in Gaza might quickly quantity to genocide.
Regardless of the mounting proof and ongoing atrocities, Khan has proven little curiosity in severely probing Israel, in keeping with Palestinian officers, victims and authorized students.
“Khan turned enthusiastic to start out this investigation [in the occupied territories] after October 7. That’s alarming,” mentioned Omar Awadallah, who oversees UN human rights organisations as a part of the Palestinian Authority, the political physique governing the West Financial institution.
“[The Palestinian Authority] gave him retroactive jurisdiction from 2014. [Khan] can not say that he didn’t see crimes being dedicated [in the occupied territories] from 2014 till October 7,” Awadallah informed Al Jazeera.
A viable different?
On January 2, 2015, the state of Palestine turned a signatory to the Rome Statute, giving the ICC jurisdiction to analyze atrocities comparable to battle crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity and genocide within the occupied West Financial institution and Gaza.
The transfer was perceived as a victory for Palestinian and Israeli human rights teams, which have been fed up with the Israeli judicial system for not punishing Israeli officers, settlers and troopers who have been committing crimes within the occupied territories comparable to land theft and extrajudicial killings.
In accordance with Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organisation that opposes unlawful settlements within the West Financial institution, Palestinians harmed by Israeli troopers have a lower than one p.c probability of acquiring justice in the event that they file a criticism in Israel.
Whereas the ICC gives an alternative choice to Israeli courts, no arrest warrants have been issued in opposition to Israeli officers or troopers for committing battle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity in Gaza and the West Financial institution, in keeping with a authorized professional from Al Mezan, a Palestinian human rights organisation that advocates for justice in Gaza.
“We’ve submitted loads of authorized evaluation and proof to the workplace of the prosecutor even earlier than Khan was elected,” the professional, who requested for anonymity resulting from a concern of reprisal from Israeli authorities, informed Al Jazeera. “We consider that [Khan’s] workplace has sufficient proof to situation warrants for Israeli political and army leaders by now.”
After coming back from his three-day go to to Israel and the West Financial institution, Khan launched an announcement that made little point out of the mounting proof implicating Israel in committing crimes in opposition to humanity comparable to that of apartheid within the West Financial institution and battle crimes within the West Financial institution and Gaza.
Khan merely mentioned that his go to was not “investigative in nature” and referred to as on Israel to respect the authorized rules of “distinction, precaution and proportionality” in its ongoing bombing marketing campaign and floor offensive in Gaza.
Khan had a distinct tone when addressing Hamas’s October 7 assaults, calling them “severe worldwide crimes that shock the conscience of humanity”.
Khan’s assertion angered the Palestinian victims that he met briefly in Ramallah.
“What made us actually sad was what he wrote after the go to,” mentioned Nafi. “He isn’t supposed to attract an equivalence between the sufferer and their killers. We wished him to inform the Israelis to cease what they’re doing to detainees and to [stop] what they’re doing to Gaza.”
Al Jazeera submitted written inquiries to Khan’s workplace which raised Palestinian criticisms of his go to to the West Financial institution and his assertion. His workplace responded by emailing Al Jazeera a number of of Khan’s earlier statements, with out answering any of the questions.
Politically compromised?
In September 2021, Khan mentioned that he would deprioritise crimes dedicated by American forces in Afghanistan and focus his probe on the atrocities that the Taliban and the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-Ok) carried out.
Critics consider that Khan was acquiescing to political stress from america – a state that isn’t a celebration to the Rome Statute – which sanctioned Khan’s predecessor for daring to open a case in opposition to American troops in Afghanistan.
However Khan justified his choice by claiming that the court docket had restricted assets and that the Taliban and Islamic State dedicated extra severe crimes. Palestinians now concern that Khan may cite an identical justification to analyze Hamas, however not Israel.
“We’ve but to see that any prosecutor has taken the query of Palestine severely, which exhibits that the entire system of worldwide legislation has been torn into items,” mentioned Diana Buttu, a Palestinian authorized scholar.
Buttu added that the ICC has successfully grow to be a court docket that acts within the political curiosity of highly effective Western states, reasonably than in accordance with strict authorized rules.
She cited Khan’s choice to indict Russian President Vladimir Putin on accounts of battle crimes dedicated throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The ICC has grow to be a really political court docket that managed to situation indictments in opposition to Putin,” she informed Al Jazeera. “However eight weeks into what’s presumably the worst man-made catastrophe [in Gaza] and the prosecutor has remained silent and solely comes [to visit] on the request of Israel.”
Nafi agreed and added that Khan can’t declare to be ignorant or unaware of Israel’s atrocities in opposition to Palestinians.
“How many individuals does he need to see killed till he speaks up,” she informed Al Jazeera. “I would like him to be courageous sufficient, to say the reality and to say it in public.”
Further reporting by Al Jazeera correspondent Zein Basravi.
