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.
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.
