Palestine Seeks Swift ICC Legal Action Against Israel

By Lubaba Thuqan



A senior Palestinian official has called on world countries to rally support for a legal action by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into Israeli "crimes" against Palestinians.



In a statement, Saeb Erekat, the Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s Executive Committee, said he sent messages to the foreign ministers of several world countries to expose Israel's "policy of displacement and home demolitions".



He called for world support to the ICC in order to open a swift investigation into "Israeli war criminals and officials".



According to the statement, the messages were sent to the foreign ministers of the EU, Russia, China, India, Canada, Australia and Japan as well countries of South America and the Caribbean.



On Monday, bulldozers accompanied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers moved into the neighborhood of Wadi Homs in East Jerusalem and began to raze several buildings in the area.



Israeli authorities claim that the buildings were constructed without a permit.



Israel occupied East Jerusalem, in which the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.



In a move never recognized by the international community, Israel annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the self-proclaimed Jewish state's "eternal and undivided" capital.



Jerusalem remains at the heart of the decades-long Middle East dispute, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem might one day serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.



*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat -