Israeli Regime Lobbying to Conceal Its War Crimes
KABUL: (Middle East Press) Israeli regime is lobbying member-states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to cut funding for the tribunal in response to its launch of an inquiry into possible war crimes in the Palestine.
Israeli regime, which like America does not belong to the ICC, hopes to dent funding for the court that is drawn from the 122 member-states in accordance with the size of their economies, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.
The Palestinians sought ICC membership last week, after failing to get the UN Security Council to agree to an end of the Israeli regime’s occupation of the West Bank. Membership would give the world court jurisdiction in Palestinian territory, making it possible they would charge Israeli regime with war crimes during their assorted wars therein.
Israeli regime seized some $100 million worth of tax funds from the Palestinian Authority and vowed more hostile measures to punish Palestinians or seeking membership in the ICC.
Zionist regime’s hostile measures to cover its war crimes in Palestine were not limited to freezing the transfer of Palestinian tax revenues, they lobby to cut funding of ICC to
“We will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia and in Germany simply to stop funding it,” he told Israel Radio. Officials told Reuters the lobbying effort would also target Japan, whose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting occupied lands.
“This body represents no one. It is a political body,” Lieberman said, adding that he would raise the matter with visiting Canadian counterpart John Baird on Sunday.
A loss of funding would exacerbate the court’s already serious financing problems. Last week, Reuters reported that the unexpected arrival of an indicted defector from Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda would put prosecutors under severe financial strain.
The overwhelming bulk of the court’s funding comes from the advanced economies of Europe and North Asia. Japan is the largest contributor, giving 20.4 million euros in 2014, followed by Germany which gave 13.5 million.
France, Britain and Italy are also major contributors to the ICC’s budget, which will rise 7 percent to 141 million euros in 2015. Canada contributed 5.6 million.
But even countries that were traditionally close to Zionist regime were unlikely to renege on their treaty commitments to fund the ICC, said Kevin Jon Heller, professor of law at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
“Germany is probably the least likely country in the world to go against the ICC no matter how supportive of Israel it has traditionally been,” he added. “It was one of the very leading states in the creation of the ICC.”
ICC prosecutors said on Friday they would examine “in full independence and impartiality” crimes that have occurred in the Palestine since June 13 last year. This allows the court to delve into the war between Israeli regime and Gaza in July-August 2014 that killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly children and women.
