Although deliberations are still at a preliminary stage and no investigation has been opened into anyone from either side, the International Criminal Court is currently weighing opening war crimes investigations into Palestinians as well as Israelis after Palestine joined the tribunal's jurisdiction last month. The Palestinians are ready to be investigated for their role in Israel's so-called Operation Protective Edge which the ICC will examine in detail. After all, it is the Palestinians who asked for the investigation in the first place and they are well aware that they will also be judged in this court of law. The hope is that Fatou Bensouda, the ICC's chief prosecutor, will consider the evidence independently and impartially, without, as she has vowed, “fear or favor". The Palestinians seek nothing less and want nothing more. All they ask is that the law be applied in strict conformity with the Rome Statute of the ICC, with full independence and impartiality. They ask that last year's Gaza war be treated in the same way. An ICC probe into the war might never lead to actual charges being brought against Israel because of highly complex legal boundaries. And even if the court does decide to prosecute senior Israeli officials, there is no guarantee that they will actually be arrested, much less tried. The ICC has no police to execute its arrest warrants, which in practice means they often go unenforced. So why has Mahmoud Abbas pressed the point? And why go to the ICC if, as reports suggest, it might be far simpler to prosecute Hamas leaders than Israel's, making it quite likely that Palestinians and not Israelis would be the first ones to face trial? Because the Palestinians have nothing to hide, while the Israelis must answer to their blitzkrieg. Last summer's 50-day Israeli offensive on Gaza left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead – including 551 children and 299 women - with more than 12,000 injured. Only 70 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died during the assault. This is not to mention seven deadly strikes on UN schools used as shelters during the assault, which just the other day a UN report found Israel responsible for. Israel's harsh response to any ICC inquest suggests that Benjamin Netanyahu's administration is running scared. Why else is Israel so concerned about an ICC probe? Israel has been so stubbornly resistant to reaching a peace deal that it is necessary for Palestinians to bring greater international pressure to force Israeli leaders to make the necessary concessions. That leaves the Palestinians with the necessity of trying to generate new forms of leverage. The latest, most promising from the Palestinian perspective, is to persuade the world that Israel's occupation is basically criminal and that Israel is, therefore, a rogue or outlaw state that should be shunned by the international community. Of course, no matter how professional and neutral the ICC is, it nevertheless operates in a highly politically charged world, one in which it will have to face reactions to the decisions it takes. Because of the very nature of an ICC investigation into the war, the risk of politicization and misperceptions about the court are high. The important thing is that political considerations should never form any part of its decision making. Its duty should firmly remain to simply apply the law to whatever situation is before the court, which is why the court has to be allowed to carry out its mandate impartially and independently. The Palestinian-Israeli endgame will probably still be negotiations. But the tactics to get there - and to provide leverage at the table - are rapidly changing.
