TEL AVIV – A UN anti-racism panel has approved an investigation into Palestinian complaints that Israel’s activities in the West Bank are tantamount to apartheid, despite the international body’s legal adviser in the past declaring that such an investigation would be outside its jurisdiction.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which the Palestinians joined in 2014, will summon Israel and the Palestinians to a hearing and conciliation efforts, senior sources in the Foreign Ministry told Channel 13’s Barak Ravid, proceedings which Israel is likely to boycott.
A source in the Foreign Ministry said that Israel had fully cooperated with the committee as it sought to establish its jurisdiction but now that it was rejecting the UN’s own ruling, it didn’t make sense to continue cooperating.
“It looks like a predetermined result and we are not sure there is any point in taking part in such a process,” Ravid cited an official as saying on the Axios news site.
The Palestinians lodged their complaint in April 2018, but at the time, the UN’s legal adviser rejected it, ruling that the committee did not have the authority to handle the matter. That ruling was based on a precedent in the 1980s in which Syria sought to file a complaint against Israel, but was rejected by the committee because Syria didn’t recognize the Jewish state, Ravid reported. Since Israel does not recognize Palestinian membership on the committee, the complaint must be rejected, the legal adviser ruled.
However, on December 12 the committee overturned the legal ruling and approved the Palestinian complaints.
At the end of the investigation, the committee will determine whether the Palestinian complaint has merit and issue recommendations accordingly.
The decision came a few days ahead of an announcement by International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda (pictured) that she may open an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes.
A decision regarding Israel’s West Bank policies by CERD will be considered authoritative by international bodies, including the ICC.
Bensouda said there was a “reasonable basis” to open a probe into Israel’s alleged war crimes as well as its policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, since Israel is not a member of the ICC, Bensouda said the court would determine the territory over which it has jurisdiction before launching an investigation. Despite being an ICC member, the Palestinian Authority’s status as a member state is hazy and could harm the chances of an investigation. According to a legal opinion released by Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, the Hague-based court has no jurisdiction to investigate Israel.
Eugene Kontorovich, a professor of international law and the director of the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum, slammed the court for its “anti-Israel bias” and called on the U.S. to impose sanctions.
“The US has a policy of implementing sanctions against ICC officials engaged in such illegitimate activities; now is the time to apply it,” Kontorovich told Breitbart.