10 April 2021 12:00 am
JERUSALEM AFP April8, 2021- Israel on Thursday said it has formally decided not to co-operate with an International Criminal Court war crimes investigation into the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor announced on March 3 that she had opened a full investigation into the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories, infuriating Israel, which not a member of The Hague-based court.
The ICC sent a deferral notice on March 9, giving Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) a month to inform judges whether they are investigating crimes similar to those being probed by the ICC.
Had Israel informed the court that it was in fact carrying out its own probe into alleged war crimes perpetrators, it could have asked for a deferral.
Ahead of the deadline, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying the government had agreed “to not co-operate” with the ICC.