JERUSALEM – Stung by a failed U.N. resolution to push a Middle East peace settlement, the Palestinian president pledged Wednesday to join the International Criminal Court in a move that could open the way for filing war crimes allegations against Israel.
The announcement by Mahmoud Abbas is certain to bring opposition from Washington and could deal a major blow to any hopes of reviving peace talks between Palestinians and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It also reflected the frustration by Palestinian leaders over Netanyahu’s hard-line policies, including expansion of West Bank settlements, as well as sharpening tensions after a series of clashes in recent months and this summer’s war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
In a sweeping shift of tactics, Abbas said his West Bank government would back more than 20 international treaties, including the framework that set up the Hague-based International Criminal Court.
The Palestinian move came a day after falling just one vote short in a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Israel step up peace efforts and withdraw from occupied lands.
“We want to complain. There’s aggression against us, against our land. The Security Council disappointed us,” Abbas said as he gathered the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on the West Bank.
It was not immediately clear, however, what level of participation would be granted Abbas’ Palestinian Authority in the various groups, including the court.
Many nations signed the court’s founding document, but it has been seriously hobbled by snubs from countries such as the United States, China, India and most of the Arab world. Israel, too, has not joined.
The Palestinians recently gained observer status among the court’s backers, and in 2012 were admitted to the U.N. General Assembly as a nonmember observer state.
In a sign of the court’s limitations, prosectors were forced earlier this month to abandon a case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who had been charged with orchestrating a 2007 campaign of ethnic violence. Though Kenya is a member of the court, the government refused to cooperate with the prosecution and blocked investigators from gathering sufficient evidence to continue the case.
Morello reported from Washington.
