Israel said to formally protest International Criminal Court's unusual appeal to 'Palestinian victims'

"Israel has lodged a formal protest with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for launching a campaign last month to reach out to 'victims of the situation in Palestine,' an unusual step which Jerusalem officials charge casts doubt on the court's ability to treat the Jewish state fairly.

In a press release issued in July, three judges, who are members of the so-called pretrial chamber dealing with Palestinian complaints of alleged Israeli war crimes, ordered the court's registry 'to establish, as soon as practicable, a system of public information and outreach activities for the benefit of the victims and affected communities in the situation in Palestine.'

Furthermore, the judges required the registry - a neutral organ of the court providing administrative support - to open an 'informative page on the Court's website' geared exclusively to Palestinians, and to report on the progress of its activities every three months.

This despite the fact that ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has not yet decided whether the court has any jurisdiction over matters related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, since it has no jurisdiction over Israel (which is not a member state) and because Palestine is not a state and therefore cannot exercise jurisdiction over the West Bank...

'The court's judges are completely ignoring the fact that the court lacks jurisdiction to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that the court's prosecutor hasn't made any decision in her preliminary examination,' a senior Israeli legal official told Hadashot TV news.

'The judges' eagerness to initiate such an anomalous decision leaves in serious question the court's ability to fairly deal with matters relating to Israel,' he added..."