Barry Shaw: On April 1, the Jerusalem Post had a glaring front page story about a borderless, undemocratic, questionably lawless entity known as ‘Palestine’ becoming a member of the International Criminal Court.
Barry Shaw
The PLO was quoted as saying that “It is war crimes and war criminals that undermine peace efforts.”
The PLO also said that the decision to join the ICC “reflects Palestine’s unwavering commitment to peace, universal values, and determination to provide protection for its people and hold those responsible for the crimes they have committed.”
Most Israelis must have been scratching their heads and wondering if this was an April Fools trick being perpetrated by the paper on its readers.
Could a Palestinian Authority guilty of decades of incitement, violence, terrorism, that left thousands of Israelis dead or injured, have decided to join the world criminal court to bring charges against itself?
Maybe, in a fit of moral clarity, they had decided the only way to peace was a complete reform of their violent terroristic tendencies and had thrown themselves on the mercy of the ICC to investigate their war and human rights crimes, both against innocent Israelis and their own people?
But no. Despite the repeated rockets and mortars, over ten thousand in number, against Israeli civilian targets, despite launching terror attacks against Israeli civilians by multiple and uniquely gruesome methods and seemingly oblivious to the heinous crimes they commit they, instead, target the target of their violence, hate, and terror with their application to join this global legal chamber.
And so we turned to page two of the same edition of the Jerusalem Post to read that the Shurat HaDin NGO had filed war crimes charges against Hamas on behalf of 26 Americans for their deliberate firing of rockets at Ben Gurion Airport during the 2014 Hamas-initiated Gaza conflict.
One piece of evidence that, hopefully, will convict Hamas on these charges was the statement of their spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, who had triumphantly admitted that “the success of Hamas in closing Israeli air space is a great victory for the resistance, and is a crown of Israel’s failure.”
Like a sick joke, the Palestinian Authority and the PLO became members of the ICC in The Hague on April 1. But the Palestinian Authority and the PLO were found guilty on terrorism charges in a New York court on February 23 in a class action suit brought by the families of ten Americans killed by them in a series of deadly attacks that killed 33 people and wounded more than 400 others in Israel.
So much for a Palestinian “unwavering commitment to peace and universal values.” As with all their commitments, it’s all smoke and mirrors. But it really is Palestinian war crimes and war criminals that undermine peace efforts, and it is time that the international community opened its eyes to this truth.
One final thought on Palestinians, their unrelenting incitement and terror, and the legal system. When are the Israeli victims of Palestinian terror going to have their day in court? Why is it that only the American victims of Palestinian crimes who are receiving justice?
Although many Palestinian terrorists have been arrested, tried in a military court and imprisoned, not one Israeli family has received closure by having criminal charges brought against the Palestinian Authority, the PLO, Hamas, or any of their leaders, despite the mountain of evidence against them. Not one of them has received a shekel in compensation for the loss and damage brought down on them by these guilty parties to terrorism who are now claiming victimhood in the Hague.
We live in a morally twisted world but true justice, real justice, will only be served when the thousands of Israeli victims of Palestinian terror have their day in court.
Barry Shaw is the author of the new book, “Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism.” https://www.createspace.com/5333306 He is also the co-founder of the Netanya Terror Victims Organization.
Barry Shaw
