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SvennoJ on 22 May 2024
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Legal group submits war crimes complaint to Scotland Yard

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), a London-based legal group, has submitted a complaint to Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Team accusing Israel of using “‘starvation as a weapon of war” and “willfully causing great suffering to Palestinians during its war on Gaza”.

The complaint builds on an initial complaint submitted in January that is still being considered by Scotland Yard, which named four British government ministers for “alleged complicity and criminal responsibility in Israeli war crimes”.

The latest submission now includes a fifth senior government minister as an alleged perpetrator, ICJP said in a statement.

“The alleged criminal acts are prosecutable in the United Kingdom and will now be considered by Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Investigation Team before a decision is made by them whether to open a formal criminal investigation, which could see alleged perpetrators questioned, arrested and prosecuted,” it said.

It added that the 60-page complaint is comprehensive, with 800 pages of evidence “collected from first hand eyewitnesses, expert reports and expert evidence from nineteen medical professionals who have worked in Gaza since October”.

Germany reiterates support for two-state solution

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson has emphasised Germany’s support for a two-state solution in response to a reporter’s question on the three European countries’ announcement earlier today that they had decided to recognise Palestine as a state.

“An independent Palestinian state remains a firm goal of German foreign policy,” the spokesperson told a regular news conference in Berlin, adding that a dialogue process is needed to achieve that goal.

Palestinian state recognition based on 1967 borders: Irish foreign minister

Micheal Martin says the country plans to formally recognise the Palestinian state on May 28 based on its 1967 borders. This refers to the borders that existed before the war that year in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“When we recognise a state, we don’t recognise the government of the day; we recognise the state in terms of a permanent population of people in terms of defined borders, and in this case, it’s the 1967 borders,” the Irish foreign minister told RTE radio.

That is “a defined territory involving Gaza, the West Bank and … a capital of both an Israeli state and a Palestinian state in Jerusalem”, Martin said.