The French newspaper "Le Monde" expressed its regret at the failure of the great powers, especially the United States, to support the decision of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into the crimes committed since June 2014 in the occupied Palestinian territories.
And after 54 years of the beginning of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Le Monde says in its editorial, here is Israel's policy in these lands placed under the magnifying glass of the International Criminal Court.
The newspaper adds that the investigation case in this explosive file was confirmed by the Prosecutor of this court, Fatou Bensouda, in early March.
Le Monde said that this Gambian judge courageously ignored the pressure exerted on her during the era of former US President Donald Trump, and published the investigation shortly after US President Joe Biden came to power.
The newspaper believed that the reception that the new US president assigned to this measure indicates what his policy will be in the Middle East, especially since this investigation comes at the moment when relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors tend to normalize, which may lead to the marginalization of the issue of the Palestinians' right to a state.
The newspaper pointed out that neither the United States nor Israel is a member of this international court, unlike the Palestinian Authority, which it became a member of in 2015.
As for the topics that the newspaper said that Bensouda decided in 2019 to be examined by the court, they are 3 topics: the alleged crimes committed during the 2014 summer war in the Gaza Strip by both the Israeli army and Hamas, and the suppression of the "March of Return" in the Gaza Strip in 2018, Which left 200 dead and thousands injured, and the Israeli settlement in the West Bank, which violates the Geneva Convention, which prohibits changing the demographics of the occupied lands.
The newspaper stressed that the British lawyer Karim Khan, who is scheduled to succeed Fatou Bensouda in mid-June, will have to show the lack of flexibility just as his predecessor was.
But Le Monde noted that Joe Biden does not seem in a hurry to respect the independence of the International Criminal Court, noting that the new president is reluctant even to lift the sanctions imposed by Trump on Fatou Bensouda, which contradicts his commitment to restore "values" diplomacy.
Le Monde expressed regret for the signal sent by Washington, as well as Berlin, when they expressed in similar terms their denunciations of the Prosecutor's decision.
The newspaper noted that the crimes that have been blamed on the Syrian forces during the 10 years of the war, and those that have been blamed on Israel since 1967, do not have the same nature, but these two conflicts are developing on the same basis: impunity.
Le Monde stressed that the Israeli justice system deprives Palestinians of any ability to seek redress. As for the other means they tried to defend their rights, whether it was non-violent popular mobilization, negotiations, armed uprising, terrorism, or resorting to the United Nations, they ended All of them to a dead end, due to the great disparity between the two parties and the reluctance of the great powers to pressure Israel to end the annexation policy and the de facto situation.
The newspaper concluded its editorial that the referral to the International Criminal Court is the final lifeline for the Palestinians, and a test of the credibility of Joe Biden and all Western capitals that claim to defend the "two-state solution", and that no one can remain above international law.