Analysts: Palestinian ICC Claim over US Embassy Relocation to Bear No Fruit

The court does not have jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes committed by the United States government

The Palestinian Authority filed an “indictment” with the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the one-year anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s decision to relocate the country’s embassy to Jerusalem.

“After the Trump Administration carried out its provocative and illegal action, the State of Palestine continues to seek justice and accountability through the tools and mechanisms available to law-abiding and respecting [nations] within the international system,” PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who submitted the claim, wrote in a statement.

“Going to the ICC is in line with the decision of the Palestinian leadership to take all political and legal steps to reject US moves,” Palestinian National Council member Ahmed Ghoneim told The Media Line.

“Palestinians consider all occupation measures against Jerusalem null and void,” he continued, “and going to the court is one of the means to counter American bias toward Israel. The US participates with Israel in its aggression against the Palestinians.”

Many analysts are skeptical that the PA’s action will bear fruit given that Washington is not a party to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding charter, and the court thus lacks jurisdiction to investigate cases related to US policy or involving American citizens.

Last September, US National Security Adviser John Bolton called the ICC “ineffective, unaccountable and, indeed, outright dangerous,” adding that “if the court comes after us, Israel or other US allies, we will not sit quietly.”

Notably, ICC judges in April declined a prosecutor’s request to open a case looking into purported crimes committed by US military personnel in Afghanistan. Thereafter, Trump described the ICC as “illegitimate” and a danger to American sovereignty.

Indeed, US presidents have in the past threatened to punish the Palestinians for turning to the ICC with war crimes claims against Israel, which likewise is not a party to the Rome Statue. For its part, the PA acceded to the convention in 2015 despite the absence of a formal Palestinian state.

Israel responded to that move by suspending the transfer of taxes and tariffs it collects on behalf of the PA, not unlike the current situation whereby the Netanyahu government is withholding a portion of the same funds equal to the amount the Palestinian leadership pays monthly to those jailed in Israel for security offenses.

Oded Eran, a former Israeli ambassador to Jordan and past lead negotiator in the run-up to the 2000 Camp David peace talks, emphasized to The Media Line that politics should be left out of the ICC’s decision-making process.

“On the legal side there are several decisions that international community took from 1948 onward, including security council resolutions that say the status of the [disputed] territories should not be changed unilaterally. However,” he elaborated, “the US president made it known that the embassy move did not pre-determine the future status of the eastern part of Jerusalem,” which the Palestinians claim as part of a prospective state.

Accordingly, Eran attributes the PA’s actions to an over-arching “strategy to try everything possible in international forums…to make it clear the Palestinians view themselves as living in a normal state.”

In this respect, Palestinian political analyst Naser Tahbub noted to The Media Line that “no file against the US has been opened by the ICC until now. So what’s the benefit of keep going to it?,” he asked rhetorically.

“The PA submitted the [embassy] claim to show that it has done something to protest America.”

That Washington has already cut-off hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for projects in the West Bank, coupled with PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ ongoing boycott of US officials and attempts to torpedo the White House’s soon-to-be-released peace plan, few envision Trump being phased – especially by an initiative that has little chance of producing tangible results.