|
|
Israel opposes resolution to create International Criminal Court
MITCHELL DANOW
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - For 50 years, Jewish jurists in Israel and abroad were among the prime supporters of an international court that could prosecute war crimes whenever and wherever they were committed. But now Israel is among a handful of nations opposing a resolution, adopted over the past weekend at a U.N.-sponsored conference in Rome, calling for the creation of what is being called the International Criminal Court.
The Jewish state's opposition is based on a single clause in the resolution under which Israeli settlement activity could be interpreted as a war crime. Israel, which stands alongside the United States in opposing the resolution, is concerned that the clause would be used to justify the prosecution of any Israeli involved in settlement activities, Alan Baker, legal adviser to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said in an interview.
Outside of Israel, Jewish observers have a mixed view of the court, with some expressing solidarity with Israel's position and others pointing to the legacy of the Holocaust as a reason Jews should support it.
Richard Goldstone, the former chief prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, said Israel's opposition to the court is particularly disappointing in light of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust. He said that because the very concept of genocide and crimes against humanity has its roots in the Holocaust, the issue "should resonate in every Jewish heart, if not every Jewish vein."
The concept of a permanent war crimes tribunal was born half a century ago, when the first such court was convened in the German city of Nuremberg to try Nazi war criminals. The idea languished during the Cold War, but was revived a few years ago, when the ad-hoc tribunals that Goldstone headed were set up to prosecute war crimes committed during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Some 160 nations took part in the Rome conference, which saw weeks of haggling and compromises over the document's wording.
Israel had long sought the court's creation. But it began encountering difficulties two years ago, when Egypt and Syria introduced the issue of Israeli settlement activity into a draft of the resolution, Baker said. "We fought very hard against the Arab initiative. We tried to convince others to steer away from politics, but we were the victims of political deals among the countries concerned."
The clause in the resolution that disturbs Israel refers to the "transfer, directly or indirectly, by an occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or part of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory."
Reflecting on the bind Israel was put in by the Arab-sponsored clause, Israel's attorney general, Elyakim Rubinstein, wrote in the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot that Israel was "forced" to vote against the resolution and "did so with real regret."
JTA correspondents Daniel Kurtzman in Washington and Gil Sedan in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
|
