At the same time, a complaint for “crimes against humanity” against Hamas was filed in France this Thursday.
“The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction today over all crimes committed on Palestinian territory or by Palestinian nationals since June 13, 2014”assures Thursday October 12 on franceinfo Johann Soufi, international lawyer, specialist in the ICC, former head in Gaza of the legal department of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees between 2020 and 2023.
>> Israel: a complaint for “crimes against humanity” against Hamas has been filed in France
Indeed, on January 1, 2015 the Palestinian government declared “its acceptance of the jurisdiction of the ICC from June 13, 2014”, we can read on the website of the International Criminal Court. It is therefore urgent that the ICC be concerned about what is happening in the Palestinian territories, according to Johann Soufi who is surprised at the “deafening silence from the ICC prosecutor”.
For him this “silence of the ICC echoes the silence of other multilateral organizations, notably the UN, with all the American vetoes in the Security Council on a situation which only deteriorates year after year”.
Several families plan to file a complaint
“We can consider that the Hamas attacks are similar” to crimes against humanity, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna declared on Wednesday October 11 on franceinfo. Even if “the legal qualification of these crimes will be carried out when the time comes”. At the same time, a complaint for “crimes against humanity” against Hamas was filed Thursday October 12 in France, announced lawyer Nathanaël Majster in a press release sent to franceinfo. It’s the first in France but “several other families are reuniting” and they are also considering filing a complaint, he tells franceinfo.
“The International Criminal Court is there to be the last resort when all diplomatic, political and military avenues no longer have any effect”explains Johann Soufi. “The time for international justice is important when war is here. International law draws its sources from the Geneva Conventions and it is no coincidence that it was done just after the Second World War”explains Johann Soufi, “because the whole idea was to humanize war, because even in armed conflicts, there need to be rules and international criminal justice is there to remind us of this. Now more than ever it is the time for justice International Criminal Court, time for the International Criminal Court to make its voice heard”he insists.
“We have legal instruments, war crimes, crimes against humanity which are sufficiently precise, accepted and universal to both qualify the crimes committed by Hamas in Israel and those committed by the Israeli government in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip”,
Johann Soufi, international lawyer,at franceinfo
And if international justice takes up the acts committed by Hamas in Israel, we will speak of war crimes or crimes against humanity, because concerning terrorism, “unfortunately it is a notion that falls under national law with all the political use that we know of it, particularly in authoritarian regimes”.