The Slow Process of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Opening Official Investigations into Israel’s Clear Crimes Hampers Justice
Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) welcomed today’s decision of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to reopen the case of the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla in 2010. The attack resulted in the killing of 10 activists, injuring dozens, arresting all participants of the fleet, confiscating all aid materials, personal belongings and assaulting them before finally releasing them.
AOHR UK stated that this decision is the third of its kind, since the Office of the Prosecutor was insisting on closing the case; claiming that the crime did not take place in the context of a large-scale attack and did not have the element of gravity that would make it fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
AOHR UK explained that the intransigence of the Office of the Prosecutor and its insistence on closing the file is incomprehensible as this crime is inseparable from the widespread and systematic aggression on the Gaza Strip by Israel, which imposes harsh siege on the Strip that resulted in thousands of victims.
AOHR UK expressed its strong condemnation of the behavior of the Prosecutor’s Office, which deals in deceleration and procrastination manner on cases opened before it, that include many clear crimes committed on a daily basis against Palestinians. AOHR condemns the double standard behavior of the Prosecutor’s Office, which deals differently with crimes committed in the African continent.
AOHR UK called on the Prosecutor’s Office to comply with the decision of the Appeals Chamber and to open an official investigation into the crime of assaulting the fleet of the Freedom Flotilla, as well as the crime of settlement and the different war crimes committed on the Palestinian territories.
AOHR UK stressed that the slow process of the Prosecutor’s office to open an official investigation into the cases submitted before it, is considered a kind of hampering justice and encourages Israel to move forward with its crimes, which are expanding day by day.
