Above Photo: AP.
The EU-backed resolution calling for the investigation and prosecution of the Israeli government received 41 votes in favor, 21 against, and nine abstentions.
Several members of the EU’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee have proposed a resolution calling for the EU to assist the International Criminal Court (ICC) in investigating and prosecuting the Israeli government for its war crimes against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The resolution was pushed forward by Swedish Social Democrat Evin Incir, who is also the EU’s rapporteur for recommendations of relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA). The resolution was proposed on 27 June, with 41 votes in favor, 21 against, and nine abstentions, with a plenary vote scheduled for July.
The resolution highlights the committee’s lack of progress and competence concerning ICC investigations into Israel’s acts of aggression and war crimes against the Palestinians and stresses its commitment to “helping the ICC and its prosecutor in advancing the investigation and prosecution.”
Incir addressed that the people of Palestine have been under Israeli occupation for more than 50 years, and that the EU is obliged to cooperate with the PA in order to alleviate tensions and determine avenues to end Tel Aviv’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
EU legislators are reportedly committed to revoking Israel’s settlement expansion into the occupied West Bank and are seeking to receive compensation for the demolition of several EU-funded infrastructures.
This development comes in the wake of increased settler violence against Palestinians and the Israeli coalition government’s authorization of thousands of new settlement units.
On 27 June, Israeli authorities approved the construction of near to 5,700 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the final approval of the construction of the units, saying, “Israel is actually rewarding settler terrorism against the Palestinian people.”
The announcement comes as part of the effort by extremist Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, who came to power with the election of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November, to expand Israeli settlement building and annex the occupied West Bank.
Earlier this week, the US objected to the decision by Israel’s nationalist-religious government to approve the construction of the new units.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US was “deeply troubled” by the announcement, adding that US officials had made clear publicly and privately to Israeli officials their opposition to the new settlements.
On the same day Tel Aviv permitted the construction of the new settlement units, the US left Smotrich and Ben Gvir off the invite list to the US embassy’s 4th of July party in Israel.