Qatar, others discuss ICC's role in prosecuting Israeli crimes in Occupied Palestinian Territories
Cairo
Qatar participated in a seminar titled 'The Role of the International Criminal Court in Prosecuting Those Responsible for Crimes Committed by the Israeli Occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,' held in the Arab League headquarters.
The seminar addressed monitoring and documenting Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, prosecuting their perpetrators before international justice, and examining ways to follow up on the implementation of decisions by judicial bodies - the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), and advancing the application of international sanctions.
The seminar highlighted the facts of the ongoing war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, and the crimes against humanity committed by the occupation, in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people since October 7, 2023, and the systematic destruction and uprooting of all aspects of life that it has caused, including more than 250,000 martyrs, wounded, detained and missing persons, and the destruction of more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip, with starvation being used as a weapon of murder and guardianship imposed on humanitarian work as an alternative to international bodies of jurisdiction, and the so-called aid centers that it sponsors being traps for the hungry, death traps and mass detention centres.
The seminar also addressed the situation in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the ongoing war crimes, terrorism, attacks, destruction of property, racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement. The Israeli aggression in the West Bank since October 7, 2023 has resulted in the martyrdom of approximately 1,000 citizens, the injury of more than 7,000 others, the arrest of 12,500, and the displacement of approximately 60,000 citizens.
In his opening remarks on behalf of the Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the Palestine and Occupied Arab Territories Department Ambassador Said Abu Ali said that everyone witnesses with pain and anger the facts of the ongoing war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, and the horrific crimes committed by the occupation that are a disgrace to humanity. They are returning humanity to the era of hideous barbarism without a real will to stop it, but rather to coexist with it and allow it to continue, which can only be explained by complicity.
He said, 'We recall that war crimes and crimes against humanity, crimes of ethnic cleansing, displacement, settlement and Judaisation are nothing but ingrained crimes that confirm the nature of this occupation since the Palestinian Nakba more than 70 years ago. They are the same crimes and massacres that are repeated in their most horrific forms and with their most brutal weapons, with this ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, their land, their existence and their rights since October 7, 2023, and the destruction and uprooting of all the elements of life that it has left behind with more than 250,000 victims between martyrs, wounded, detained and missing, and the destruction of more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip in the context of systematic destruction, the total annihilation of life and the implementation of displacement plans.
The Abu Ali also noted that the use of starvation as a weapon of mass murder has become routine, with the occupying army imposing its guardianship over humanitarian action as an alternative to international bodies, and transforming the so-called aid centers it sponsors into hunger traps, death traps, and mass detention centres.
He added that the situation in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, is no less catastrophic, with the Israeli occupation committing numerous war crimes as part of its escalating aggressive policies, and in all Palestinian cities, towns and camps, at the same time that armed settler gangs, with direct support from the occupation army, continue to practise terrorism, continuous attacks, destruction of property, imposing isolation and closures, carrying out field executions and arrest campaigns, Judasation, practising racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement, to achieve its colonial goals of annexation and Judaisation.
He urged all countries that have not yet recognised the State of Palestine to take this necessary step to advance the implementation of the two-state solution, as it is the only solution that expresses the will of the international community to achieve peace and prosperity in the region, and to address the causes of this ongoing conflict by ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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