Israel’s actions in Operation Protective Edge is the first subject in the inbox of Fatou Bensouda, the new Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court. In this interview she steadfastly refuses to make any generalisations about Israel or Palestine but will look only at specific acts by specific people.

James Marc Leas introduces some facts into Israel’s claim that it is always the victim of Hamas attacks and so has no case to answer for war crimes. This analysis refutes the claims of Netanyahu and the HLMG (posting below). And what of the mighty rocket-downing iron dome system?

PM Netanyahu was quick to condemn the burning of the Dawabasheh family as ‘terrorist’. Amongst the many reasons for his response was the desire to separate this one incident from the overall crime of the Occupation. The PA is marshalling its evidence for the ICC.

Ali Abuminah was the first to report the decision by the ICC that an investigation into the killing of nine Turkish activists should be launched. This is a more detailed account of the legal implications.

For once: Israeli commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmara as it sailed to Gaza and shot dead 9 Turkish volunteers on board are to be referred to the ICC by the Comoros islands union where the ship was registered. Also Spanish activists who were on board are pressing their government to make a referral to the ICC. This is happening now because a panel of judges has ruled the court’s chief prosecutor made serious errors in deciding not to take up the case.

Throughout the extensive media coverage of the UN report on Gaza 2014 there have been few Palestinian voices, few opinions sought either from officials or civilians. Reports here from the three Arab publications which covered it, Ma’an news, Al Jazeera and Al Monitor. The single point they make is that the report increases the likelihood of Palestine taking Israel to the ICC.

The Israeli establishment knows that UN enquiries are going to find Israel responsible for breaching laws of war. Amir Oren asks who, and what branch of the establishment, might be accused. Previous history shows that everyone except the Prime Minister might be found culpable. The Netanyahus are working hard to ensure this doesn’t change.

Mahmoud Abbas has chosen now to write a succinct Op-Ed on why now is the time. For Palestinians it’s now because of the referral to the International Criminal Court. By enclosing the Palestinian demand for statehood tightly within a framework of international law he hopes, at the least, to wrong-foot those who oppose the demand. Gershon Baskin comments on Abbas’ argument. He believes that disputed issues can be resolved, if the negotiations are conducted in secret.

Doubt meets the PA’s accession to the International Criminal Court. What can they actually do with this new legal power, when and how? Will they, Fatah or Hamas be open to charges by Israel? No-one knows until any process begins. But it gives Palestinians status and hope. The Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights said “Why were there three wars against Gaza in less than six years? It is simply because Israel is not accountable. This might act as a deterrent.”

On April 1st, the PA formally joined the International Criminal Court. It says this is a milestone on its path to statehood and also a means of making Israel accountable for its war crimes (not just in Gaza, but also its policies of apartheid and settlements). Israel has already stopped handing over due tax revenue and threatens further retribution.

When these three experts on the MidEast say ‘few on the global stage believe Netanyahu is committed to trying to find a way to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians’ that is an overstatement. Does anyone? They warn the PA about expecting too much from the ICC but their admonition is directed first at Netanyahu for his intransigence and thus opening Israel to a revived delegitimisation campaign.

Only the Palestinian people, who are politically impotent, have a profound interest in ending the rift between Fatah and Hamas. To the Israelis in particular, and most other actors, the rift is a Godsend. As long as Fatah and Hamas are at war, they need do nothing. Here Daoud Kuttab gives his usual intelligent strategic ideas of the way forward for the PA. In the same issue of Al Monitor is an account of the bitter rivalry with Hamas, where the military wing has gained the upper hand. The Ramallah leaders are not the innocent victim of this – if they had authorised elections, movement might have taken place.

Since last December Israel has not handed over the tax revenues it collects for the PA. Forcing the PA into insolvency is a punishment for joining the International Criminal Court. PM Netanyahu fears he’ll look soft to the right wing if he authorises the fiscal transfer. John Kerry and IDF strategists have warned that the collapse of the PA is in no-one’s interest.

The direct approaches to the UN and ICC by the PNA follow the failed efforts of John Kerry (which he blamed on Israel) to restart negotiations. Now with Congress dominated by Republicans, the US has returned to blocking and threatening Palestinians.

PM Netanyahu has decided that the best response to the decision by the ICC to open a ‘preliminary inquiry’ into Israel is to use all means to delegitimise the court to boost his standing before the election (also post below). Any next step by the ICC will make either the USA and allies, or Arab states angry.

The outrage being organised by Netanyahu and expressed by Republicans, especially, in Congress at the effrontery of the PNA’s application to the ICC seems quite disproportionate. An unsympathetic comment from Douglas Bloomfield.

In distinctive ironic style, Robert Fisk mocks the PNA for applying to the ICC and thus to be accountable to for any breaches of international law. The USA and Israel have both squealed effrontery at this effrontery – but as neither of these countries has signed up the ICC, it looks as though the Palestinians are occupying the higher moral ground.

The diplomacy-urging Israeli state has decided to punish the Palestinians for carrying out its threat to join the ICC if if its statehood bid at the failed – a bid Israel used all its powers to block. It has frozen $127m due to the PNA. While the latter is inured to the fact it (as Hamas) might be prosecuted for war crimes, Israel is outraged that it might be prosecuted for far more obvious and extensive crimes such as expropriating Palestinian land for settlements.

The ideal of a neutral, international body to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity has a long history but only came to fruition 12 years ago with the creation of the ICC (from which Israel has withdrawn). The PA has not applied to join because Pres. Abbas wants to use it as a bargaining chip with Israel – a tactic the EU supports – which might make sense if negotiations were progressing. Lotte Leich argues the EU should welcome the PA signing up to the ICC instead of giving way to demands for impunity.

However many pictures you have seen, however many stories you have read of Israel’s war on Gaza, this speech from Dr. Mustafa Barghouti on how thorough and unsparing the attack was is still chilling. Every number you read is made up of individual persons, homes, places of worship, sanitation facilities… He urges resistance.