The Prime Minister and the top political-security leaders are expected to decide whether to respond to the court's demand to investigate "war crimes" • The deliberation: whether to send a letter that does not recognize its authority
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to convene a crucial discussion today of the top political, security and legal leaders in Israel, in order to make a decision on how to proceed before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
More precisely, a decision should be made on how to answer the question of the chief prosecutor of the tribunal, Pato Bensuda - whether Israel intends to investigate the war crimes that the court attributes to Israelis, or not.
The discussion will be attended by Defense Minister Bnei Gantz, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, his Deputy International Legal Affairs Roi Sheindroff, Foreign Ministry Legal Adviser Tal Becker and more.
Israel is debating whether to ignore the plaintiff's request altogether, since Israel is not a member of the tribunal, does not recognize its authority and in fact sees the proceedings against it as a biased political step.
Alternatively, the possibility of returning a letter to Connie with a brief statement that the plaintiff has no authority to deal with issues is being considered.
In preliminary discussions held in recent weeks in the relevant government ministries, the options available to Israel and the significance of the possible responses were discussed.
Due to the complexity of the issue, there is no consensus in the Israeli system regarding the right step to take, and the decision is therefore brought to Netanyahu's table.