From Goldstone to Cliff Eitan: The Challenge of the Inquiry with the Hague Tribunal. opinion

From Goldstone to Cliff Eitan: The Challenge of the Inquiry with the Hague Tribunal. opinion

Even if the Tribunal approves the International Court of Justice's application to open an investigation against Israel, Israel should not be surprised by this move. In fact, Israel has been preparing for this scenario for about a decade.

In April 2009, the UN Human Rights Council appointed a committee to investigate allegations of international law as part of Operation Cast Lead. Coincidentally, South African Jewish Judge Richard Goldstone was chaired by the commission. International law during the operation.

Pato Bensuda, chief prosecutor at Hague International Criminal Court (Photo: Reuters)

Pato at Chief Prosecutor's Court at The International Criminal Court in The Hague, July 8, 2019 (Photo: Reuters)

Israel strongly rejected these claims, and even presented convincing evidence against the claims. But Israel found it more difficult to deal with another claim raised in the report - the claim that the military investigations that investigated suspected violations by IDF soldiers were unreliable, because it did not meet the basic independence and effectiveness requirements required of such an investigation.

The main concern raised by the Goldstone report was that if the Israeli investigation system does not comply with international law, IDF soldiers are expected to stand trial at the International Criminal Court - which investigates suspected violations of international law that were not investigated by the states themselves.

Trial those whose country does not

Prof. Amichai Cohen (Photo PR)

In fact, the main purpose of the International Criminal Court is to prosecute those criminals for international law whose countries are avoiding the need to investigate and prosecute them. In other words, the International Criminal Court encourages states to investigate the suspicions and prosecute themselves, just so as not to reach the position that they will be prosecuted in the International Court of Justice.

The question of whether the Israeli investigative system complies with international law was examined extensively in the report of the Tirkel Commission, a committee set up following the "flotilla to Gaza" affair and the Marmara ship, in May 2010. The committee recommended a series of improvements and changes in the Israeli investigation system. Among other things, it recommended that an independent investigation system be set up to investigate complaints against IDF soldiers before being transferred to a criminal investigation. Indeed, following the Tirkel report, an IDF inspection mechanism was set up - an investigation system designed to independently investigate suspicions against IDF soldiers and recommend to the military attorney The chief is there a place to launch a criminal investigation into the suspects.

Thousands of complaints were investigated following Operation Protective Edge

Following the firm cliff operation, the IQT was used to investigate thousands of complaints filed by Palestinians. In some of the complaints, the MP, with the recommendation of the mechanism, decided to open a criminal investigation and even prosecute soldiers. In most cases, the MP decided to close the investigation without opening a criminal investigation, stating that there was no suspicion of violating the martial law.

Are the measures Israel has taken in this context sufficient? Will the IQM block the International Criminal Court's intervention? Assuming that the ICC approves an investigation against Israel, that is exactly the question that will stand the test. Over the past ten years, Israel has made a considerable effort to deal with these claims. These efforts have achieved their goal.

Prof. Amichai Cohen is a faculty member of the Faculty of Law at UNO Academic College and an expert in international law.

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