Ramallah: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is facing pressure from various factions to press the International Criminal Court at the Hague to prosecute Israel’s actions in Gaza for ‘war crimes’.
On Wednesday night, an emergency meeting was held in Ramallah where attendees signed an urgent request for Abbas to take action with the ICC. However, Abbas has remained reluctant to do so, for reasons unclear. Speaking to Gulf News, Najat Abu Baker, a senior Fatah official in Nablus said that there was ‘no excuse to justify the Palestinian leadership’s failure to approach the ICC’.
“The Palestinian National Authority is not serious about joining the ICC, but uses the issue to cool the streets in the West Bank. The PNA does not what a third intifada or a military struggle against Israel,” she said. The Palestinan leadership therefore faces a real dilemma as it moves forward. On the one hand, it does not want an armed struggle while on the other hand it risks losing all of its support among the people if it does not take action.
