Challenging Israeli impunity in the ICC
http://972mag.com/challenging-israeli-impunity-in-the-icc/114659/
As the Israeli judiciary continues to side with the state and its security services, advocates and human rights lawyers must reevaluate the strategy of litigating Palestinian grievances in the occupier’s courts.
Palestinian human rights organizations submitted a classified communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor last month. The information contained will most likely involve the documented targeting of non-military facilities during the 2014 Gaza war. At least 28 schools were damaged or destroyed during the 2014 offensive, according to Human Rights Watch hospitals, medical staff, sewage and electricity plans, and other civil infrastructure were also allegedly targeted.
Such targeting of medical and civilian infrastructure is not limited to Gaza, however. Serious allegations have also been raised about the Israeli army’s conduct in the West Bank in recent months.
Since the start of October 2015, Israeli security forces committed 228 “violations against [Palestinian] medical staff,” according to Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, including 56 cases in which “ambulances were attacked” and 116 cases of assaults against medical staff. Numbers for November from the Palestinian Ministry of Health have not yet been released.
