ICC Prosecutor Intends to Visit Palestinian Territories in 2023

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM – The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) declared his intention to visit the Palestinian territories next year, as part of that body’s probe into alleged human rights violations.

Karim Khan informed the 21st session of the Hague-based court’s Assembly of State Parties on Monday, adding that Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are also on his itinerary.

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster said the ICC confirmed that “a visit to Palestine is one of the prosecutor’s goals for next year.”

Last year, Khan’s predecessor Fatou Bensouda announced an investigation that would “cover crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court that are alleged to have been committed in the situation since 13 June 2014…”

The selection of that date is the starting point for the probe indicates that the ICC will not be investigating the kidnapping and murder by Palestinian terrorists of three Israeli teenagers – Eyal Yifrach Hy”d, Gilad Shaer Hy”d and Naftali Fraenkel Hy”d – in the Gush Etzion area, which occurred the day before.

Then-prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu denounced the probe as “the epitome of antisemitism and hypocrisy.”

Yerushalayim has argued the court doesn’t have jurisdiction since Israel isn’t a member of the court and hasn’t ratified its Rome Statute, but the ICC said it had jurisdiction in the Yehuda and Shomron and Gaza since it accepted Palestine as a member in 2015.

Public broadcaster Kan quoted Nick Kaufman, an Israeli lawyer who previously served as a defense attorney at the ICC, as saying the prosecutor had “picked his words carefully” in view of diplomatic pressure regarding the court’s probe into Israel.

Kaufman said Khan hadn’t said he intends to visit, but rather that “one of his goals” is to do so.