| Under increasing pressure from a frustrated public, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority moved on Wednesday to make the authority a party to the International Criminal Court. |
| Mr. Abbas took the step at the risk of incurring severe sanctions from Israel and the United States. |
| The move came a day after the United Nations Security Council rejected a draft resolution that would have set a deadline of 2017 for Palestinian statehood and Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. It was billed as part of a strategic shift by the Palestinian leadership to pursue statehood in the international arena after decades of failed American-brokered negotiations with Israel. |
| Mr. Abbas, whose popularity has plummeted since this summer’s battle between Israel and Hamas, has for months staved off demands from other Palestinian leaders to join the court, and use it to prosecute Israeli officials for war crimes. But doing so could have major repercussions, both because Palestinians could also face charges at the court, and because Israel and the United States Congress have promised to respond harshly. |
| “There is no question mark as to what are the consequences, that there will be immediate American and Israeli financial sanctions,” said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “Those sanctions will gradually become more and more crippling, and this could indeed be the beginning of the end of the P.A. They fully realize that.” |
READ MORE »http://www.nytimes.com/2015/ |
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Despite Warnings, Palestine Moves to Join International Criminal Court
Despite Warnings, Palestine Moves to Join International Criminal Court
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment