PA's UN bid may lead to ICC action against settlers

[Scurrilous]

ACRI warns that successful Palestinian bid in UN will subject settlements to international criminal code, allow lawsuits against settlers

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4121579,00.html

<snip>

"The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) warned Tuesday that should the Palestinian Authority's statehood bid in the United Nations prove successful, West Bank settlers may find themselves facing criminal charges before the International Crimes Court.

An ACRI position paper on the possible legal ramifications of the PA's UN bid suggests that a General Assembly sanction of the Palestinian appeal with effectively subject West Bank settlements, and therefore settlers, to international criminal law and penal code.

As such, settlers would be exposed to individual criminal lawsuits in The Hague."

[cqo_000]

1. If settlers have committed crimes, they need to pay the penalty. n/t

...

[hack89]

7. And international law says the Israeli judicial system is responsible for determining that penalty.

[holdencaufield]

2. Not sure how...

The Palestinian declaration doesn't declare or settle borders... so who is to say that settler's aren't living in Israel?

[shaayecanaan]

3. So you're saying that the West Bank Palestinians are in fact Israelis? (nt)

[holdencaufield]

4. Depends on how they eventually draw the line NT

[holdencaufield]

5. When the do draw the line... eventually

I will bet you money that Israel will be much more welcoming to it's new citizens from the West Bank than the new Palestinian State will be of it's new Jewish citizens in the settlements.

[hack89]

6. That would be one way to trivialize and minimize the ICC

get it dragged into a contentious geo-political cat fight where the likely outcome is their decisions will be ignored.

This is why the ICC won't get involved - the ICC will not accept a case under certain conditions, one of which is:

(b) The case has been investigated by a State which has jurisdiction over it and the State has decided not to prosecute the person concerned, unless the decision resulted from the unwillingness or inability of the State genuinely to prosecute;

As long as Israel routinely arrests, investigates and tries settlers for crimes, then the ICC will not be involved.