The Palestinian Authority is apparently no longer interested in taking Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague for war crimes.
Despite the Palestinian Authority threats to to open up a can of worms at the ICC, calling for an investigation against Israel for supposed war crimes, the PA is now seriously back pedaling.
Al Jazeera displayed a letter from the ICC to PA’s foreign minister Raid Al-Maliki, asking why the Palestinian Authority is not giving the go ahead to pursue the investigation against Israel.
From the letter it seems clear that the ICC was willing to consider the PA’s petition, something they wouldn’t consider in the past.
Al Jazeera claims the PA is not moving forward due to outside pressures.
Earlier this month, Shurat HaDin – The Israel Law Center, threatened to start preparing for ICC investigations of Hamas and PA officials, in particular, those with Jordanian citizenship – and added they have enough documentation to make the charges stick.
It may very well be that the Shurat HaDin threat has made the PA realize that in an investigation against them, members of the Palestinan Authority would not fair well at all.
Alternatively, the PA may have simply taken their bluff a little further than they were prepared to play it. By getting permission to have standing in the court to bring charges against Israeli officials, they simply realized they completely opened themselves up to being brought to the court too.