[Webinar] Israel-Palestine at the International Criminal Court: What Next?

Resource

Israel-Palestine at the International Criminal Court: What Next?

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Featuring Katherine Gallagher (Center for Constitutional Rights), Hassan Jabareen (Adalah), Michael Kearney (Al-Haq) and Yael Stein (B’Tselem) in conversation with Lara Friedman (FMEP).

For the resources shared in this webinar, please scroll down. 

FMEP is pleased to invite you to join us for this webinar — featuring a panel of Israeli, Palestinian, and international legal experts — examining the latest ICC ruling and its implications for the fight for accountability, justice, and human rights in Israel/Palestine.

On February 5, 2021, the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC), found that “the Court’s territorial jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine, a State party to the ICC Rome Statute, extends to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” This ruling – explained by the ICC itself here – opens the door for investigations into alleged war crimes perpetrated by “members of the Israeli Defense Forces, Israeli authorities, Hamas, and Palestinian armed groups.”

This webinar is a follow-up to the ICC-focused webinar FMEP convened in April 2020, in the context of the ICC’s then-ongoing consideration of opening a formal probe into Israeli and Palestinian actions in the Occupied Territories. That webinar  — which attracted nearly 1000 viewers in real time, and which has been viewed nearly 1000 times since — can be watched here.

Participants

Katherine Gallagher is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where works on holding U.S. and foreign officials, and corporations, including private military contractors, accountable for serious human rights violations through domestic civil actions, criminal cases under universal jurisdiction laws and actions using human rights special procedures mechanisms. She has represented victims before the International Criminal Court, regarding sexual violence by Catholic Church officials; U.S. torture in the Situation of Afghanistan et al, and persecution by Israeli officials in the Situation of Palestine. Prior to joining CCR, she worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 2001-2006.

Hassan Jabareen is the founder of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, serving as Adalah’s general and legal director since its establishment in 1996. He has litigated scores of landmark constitutional law cases regarding Palestinian citizens of Israel, including the Palestinian leadership, and international humanitarian law cases concerning Palestinians in the 1967 Occupied Territory before the Israeli Supreme Court. Also, since 1998, he has been an adjunct lecturer for a course that he initiated on the legal status of the Arab minority in Israel and other law courses in the Faculties of Law at Tel Aviv, Hebrew, and Haifa Universities. He has received awards for outstanding public interest lawyering and top human rights law prizes. @AdalahEnglish

Dr. Michael Kearney lectured on human rights and international law at the University of York, LSE, and University of Sussex, and is a legal researcher with Al-Haq. His academic publications include works on propaganda and incitement, statehood and self-determination, and various elements of international criminal law, including extensive analysis of legal aspects of the situation in Palestine.

Yael Stein is the Research Director of B’Tselem. She holds an LLB from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA in human rights from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. Yael has authored several of B’Tselem reports, including The Occupation’s Fig Leaf (2016), Getting Off Scot-Free (2017) and Fake Justice (2019).

Moderator

Lara Friedman is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) and a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with particular expertise on the Israeli-Arab conflict, Israeli settlements, Jerusalem, and the role of the U.S. Congress. She is published widely in the U.S. and international press and is regularly consulted by members of Congress and their staffs, by Washington-based diplomats, by policy-makers in capitals around the world, and by journalists in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to her work at FMEP, Lara is a Contributing Writer at Jewish Currents and a non-resident fellow at the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP). She tweets at @LaraFriedmanDC.

Resources shared in this webinar: 

Follow our panelists: 

FMEP’s April 2020 Webinar on the ICC → https://fmep.org/resource/israel-palestine-at-the-international-criminal-court/

ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I issues its decision on the Prosecutor’s request related to territorial jurisdiction over Palestine, Feb 5 2021 –> https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=pr1566

Al Haq’s press release on the ICC ruling → https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/17878.html

Katie Gallagher’s Feb 5 tweet on the ICC ruling → https://twitter.com/katherga1/status/1357762218859913218

Adalah: 

B’Tselem: 

On the investigation of specific cases, as Yael Stein discussed: 

Center for Constitutional Rights: 

On US sanctions against the ICC: 

The 2007 decision to declare Gaza an “enemy entity” —> https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/world/africa/19iht-mideast.2.7566721.html

“Knesset bill outlines plan to defend Israel from ICC probe” → https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/02/17/knesset-bill-outlines-plan-to-defend-israel-from-icc-probe/