Ten Types of Israeli and Palestinian Violations of the Laws of War and the ICC
33 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2015 Last revised: 27 Jun 2016
Date Written: October 19, 2015
Abstract
This article will address international law that is relevant to longstanding and politically contentious issues regarding four types of conduct that Israel has been found to have authorized or facilitated in territories that Israel occupied after the 1967 war. The article will also address six types of manifest violations of the laws of war by Palestinians since mid-June 2014. In particular, the focus in Part II will be on what laws of war are applicable to use of collective punishment, deportation of civilians, infusion of one’s own nationals into occupied territory, and annexation of occupied territory. The focus in Part III will be on what laws of war are applicable to unlawful confinement, hostage-taking, murder, attacks on civilians, attacks on civilian objects, and use of indiscriminate methods and means of attack. In 2015, these issues were among those raised by Palestine before the International Criminal Court (ICC), although it is not certain that the ICC will assume jurisdiction after the conclusion of a preliminary investigation opened by the Prosecutor in January 2015. Part IV will address two other matters concerning ICC jurisdiction – certain preconditions to jurisdiction and possible deferrals to domestic jurisdiction.
Keywords: Annexation, attacks, civilians, civilian objects, collective punishment, continuing offense, deportation, Gaza, Geneva Convention, hostage-taking, ICC, ICJ, indiscriminate, Israel, jurisdiction, laws of war, murder, occupied territory, Palestine, precondition, rockets, Security Council, settlements
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