Palestine's UN ambassador officially submits ICC membership

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour presented letters to the United Nations on Friday requesting membership in the International Criminal Court.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to review the letters on Palestine joining the Rome Statute, which governs the ICC, and notify state members on the request within 60 days. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas originally signed the Rome Statute on 31 December.

Mansour said that the application, which the Palestinians have been threatening to submit for years, was the “peaceful and civilised option”.

The move comes after a Jordanian-backed resolution on Palestinian statehood failed to pass at the Security Council earlier this week.

At the time, the US strongly condemned the move, with US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke calling the move “entirely counter-productive”.

The application “badly damages the atmosphere with the very people with whom they ultimately need to make peace,” Rathke added.

Mansour, however, lashed out at the US on Friday, saying: “In terms of the US, it’s really puzzling when you seek justice through a legal approach” but end up being “punished for it”.  

This summer’s war with Gaza and the growth of settlements in the West Bank are due to top the list of priorities for investigation by the court, Mansour told reporters, while confirming that Palestine had applied to have the 50-day war reviewed retrogressively.

However, when the court will actually review these claims, and indeed whether it will choose to hear them at all, remains unknown.

While hundreds of cases are usually placed before the ICC prosecutors every year, only a fraction of them are ultimately heard.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week he believed the ICC would not pass the "hypocritical application."

"The Palestinian Authority is an entity that maintains an alliance with a terrorist organization, Hamas, which commits war crimes," Netanyahu said. "The state of Israel is a lawful country with a moral army that enforces all international laws.”

The ICC, which sits in the Hague, has 122 members, and is charged with trying cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as acts of genocide. The US and Israel have both signed but not ratified the treaty.