The Palestinian Authority is still ‘actively supporting’ an ICC investigation against Israel

"While the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation against Israel has not been a focus of recent attention, make no mistake: the Palestinian Authority, which initiated the proceedings, is still doing its utmost to support, promote and advance the investigation. The P.A.’s continued efforts in the ICC activate provisions in U.S. legislation prohibiting the administration from providing the bulk of its aid to the P.A. and preventing the reopening of PLO offices in the country.

According to P.A. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad al-Maliki, P.A. meetings with ICC prosecutor Karim Khan are ongoing. Khan had even made several requests for the assistance of the P.A., which decided to cooperate 'so that the investigation will begin,' al-Maliki told P.A. TV on March 5.

'Yes, we are in contact, but unfortunately it [the investigation of Israel] has not actually begun, for several reasons. As you know, the previous prosecutor [Fatou Bensouda] left and a new chief prosecutor arrived. After we met with him a number of times he said that he first of all needs to take his place and determine the priorities, to look at the cases before him and determine the priorities of the cases, and to see what his capabilities are in terms of economic capabilities and manpower, in order to determine which resources to allocate to each case so he will begin its investigation. Until now he is busy with this,' said al-Maliki.

'He sent us a letter directly and said that he expects us to help him so that his representatives will be able to come to Palestine and begin the work. He made several requests of us that we need to help him with, and we agreed and said that we are prepared to cooperate with all these requests so that the investigation will begin. We hope that soon we will meet with him at the ICC headquarters so that we will sit with him and understand what the result is of all these preparations, and whether the Israel-Palestine case is one of the priorities that he determined at this stage and which resources he has dedicated to this case, so that we will be able to see what can be expected and when and how and at what point [emphasis added],' he added.

Al-Maliki’s update followed his demand in June that the new ICC prosecutor give priority to the cases submitted by the 'State of Palestine' and to expedite the opening of the investigations..."