“The international community, which we represent, as a rule reaches a guilty verdict more or less immediately when Israeli actions are involved, so the Court deemed it appropriate to set a similar time frame for allegations of analogous Palestinian misdeeds.”
The Hague, July 29 – The International Criminal Court continued to devote attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today, issuing new prosecutorial guidelines for its investigators to the effect that alleged war crimes perpetrated by Palestinians would only be eligible for consideration as ICC cases if indictment occurs within a day of the alleged crime.
ICC magistrates instructed the prosecution teams to review all pending cases of alleged war crimes by Palestinians to determine whether they conform to the new guidelines, and if not, to consider closing those cases effective immediately. The move is believed to affect up to 100% of investigations against Palestinians, notably figures from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and various militias affiliated with the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization who ultimately answer to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Whether the prosecutors will implement the decision in its entirety remains an open question, as the investigation and prosecution teams may seek to assert their independence from the judicial arm of the Court, but the policy change definitely applies to all new cases. It is expected to lighten the load of ICC investigators, who already have their hands full not prosecuting criminals from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Russia, Ukraine, Central African Republic, Congo, Nigeria, Chad, the Philippines, Egypt, and Libya, among others.
Initially, the Court considered a full 48 hours as the statute of limitations for Palestinian crimes, but rolled it back after a spirited discussion, according to an ICC official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It was really a question of consistency more than anything else,” said the official. “The international community, which we represent, as a rule reaches a guilty verdict more or less immediately when Israeli actions are involved, so the Court deemed it appropriate to set a similar time frame for allegations of analogous Palestinian misdeeds.” He said the original 48-hour time frame was developed by parties still immersed in an obsolescent view of traditional media, through which reports tended to emerge over the day or two following an event, as opposed to the instantaneous way that twenty-first-century news media function. Once that point was clarified, the statute of limitations was set at 24 hours, and even that was more than at least one member of the Court wanted.
Court representatives dismissed concerns that ICC procedures and bureaucracy would prevent any substantive cases against Palestinians from being prosecuted. “Just from a sustainability standpoint, it makes no sense to be too permissive with the standards,” said delegate Weeneedar Bujjitt of Gambia. “We need to nurture the populations from which our future business will grow, so that, when the time comes, there will be plenty of war crimes for us to examine. To cut off those sources of growth at this early stage would be most unwise.”
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