The Palestinian Authority on Thursday repeated its threat to file charges
against Israel at the International Criminal Court.
PLO Secretary-General
Yasser Abed Rabbo said that Israel’s “increased crimes against our people will
prompt the Palestinian leadership to go to international agencies in wake of the
recent UN General Assembly’s vote in favor of upgrading the Palestinians’
status.”
Speaking to reporters in Ramallah, Abed Rabbo said that the PA
leadership’s options “to confront Israeli crimes” remain open.
The
leadership, he added, will not spare any means to go to international
institutions “to punish Israel for its crimes.”
He said that the UN
General Assembly’s vote permits the Palestinians to take such a
step.
Abed Rabbo called for escalating “popular and peaceful” activities
against Israel and hailed the recent establishment of a Palestinian tent outpost
near Ma’aleh Adumim.
The PLO official said that the PA leadership was
serious in its efforts to end its dispute with Hamas. He added that the two
parties have already begun moving toward implementing previous reconciliation
accords to end the split between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
One
Israeli government official said that Israel did not want to see the
Palestinians “adopt unilateral provocative steps,” but would react if they
did.
He said the government has made clear to the Palestinians that they
“would pay a price” if they brought a complaint to the ICC, though he refrained
from spelling out what that price would be.
“They have no illusions, and
are well aware there would be consequences,” he said.
The Israeli
official said that in addition to punitive measures being considered, the
government was also weighing legal responses in the event the Palestinians were
to carry out their threat.
“What is ludicrous is that the same people who
talk about international law were only last year shooting rockets at Israel,
trying to kill as many civilians as possible, while hiding behind their own
civilians – a double war crime,” he said.
The official said that if the
ICC allowed Palestinian membership, something now possible as a result of the
PA’s successful bid in November to become a non-member observer state in the UN
General Assembly, it would likely turn into yet another institution – like the
UN Human Rights Council – hijacked to bash Israel.
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