Posted on 04/03/2012 4:15:01 PM PDT by SJackson
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The International Criminal Court has rejected a Palestinian Authority bid to clear the way for the permanent war crimes tribunal to investigate an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip that began in December 2008.
Prosecutors listened to lawyers supporting the Palestinian bid and Israel’s rejection of it before reaching Tuesday’s decision, but ruled that Palestinians could not sign up for the court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, as only internationally recognized states can join the court.
Palestinians have been seeking international recognition as an independent state at the United Nations, with limited success. The long-awaited written ruling by Luis Moreno-Ocampo is thus also a setback to their aims.
The Palestinian Authority unilaterally recognized the court’s jurisdiction in January 2009, and ICC prosecutors have been mulling ever since whether to accept that recognition — the first step in a process that could have finished with Israel being investigated for possible war crimes.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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