Israel Still Weighing Cooperation with ICC Investigation

Israel has yet to decide whether it will cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s investigation into alleged crimess, a senior Justice Ministry official said Thursday.

The decision by the court’s outgoing prosecutor to probe Israeli military actions and housing construction in Yehudah and Shomron was announced Wednesday and condemned by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as “the essence of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy.”

Roy Schondorf, deputy attorney general for international law, told Army Radio that the court’s decision was driven by “political agendas” and that opening an investigation was unjustified, but that Israel has not rejected any participation outright.

“The court’s conduct until now, and the prosecutor’s in particular, doesn’t inspire great trust in the way the procedures will transpire,” Schondorf said, adding that there was “a big question about the value of cooperation.”

The Palestinian Authority welcomed Wednesday’s move, while the U.S. State Department said it opposed the decision to open the investigation.

Reporting by the Associated Press.