\n The Palestinians announced a fresh push against Israel at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, a day after the United States said it was closing their Washington mission partly over the campaign.\n<\/p>\n
\n Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said it had submitted a new complaint over an Israeli \"war crime\" against a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, expected to be demolished by the Israeli army in the coming days.\n<\/p>\n
\n The dossier \"included a focus on the war crimes facing Khan al-Ahmar, specifically the crimes of forcible displacement, ethnic cleansing and the destruction of civilian property,\" Erekat said.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added that the PLO had also asked the ICC's prosecutor to speed up a preliminary probe into other alleged Israeli war crimes.\n<\/p>\n
\n Khan al-Ahmar is in a key location near Jerusalem.\n<\/p>\n
\n International powers say its demolition could enable Israeli settlement expansion that would eventually cut the West Bank in two, further threatening the prospects of an independent Palestinian state.\n<\/p>\n
\n It could be demolished in the coming days, following an Israeli high court ruling that it was built without the necessary permits.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Palestinians submitted a similar complaint regarding the village in July.\n<\/p>\n
\n The latest submission came a day after the US confirmed it would close the PLO's office in Washington, the highest Palestinian representation in the country, amid worsening relations between the two.\n<\/p>\n
\n The White House cited the Palestinians' ICC campaign and what it said was their unwillingness to negotiate.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Palestinian leadership cut off contact with the administration of President Donald Trump after he recognised the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December.\n<\/p>\n
\n Trump's administration has also cut more than $500 million in aid to Palestinians, including to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, since January.\n<\/p>\n
\n Palestinian leaders say the administration is blatantly biased in favour of Israel and is seeking to blackmail them into accepting the White House's moves.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Monday, John Bolton, national security adviser to Trump, attacked the ICC, threatening to sanction judges and other officials if they moved against US soldiers or those of key allies.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The US threats against the ICC (are) a coup against the rules-based international system,\" Erekat.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"If you worry about courts, you should not threaten the courts -- you should stop committing crimes or aiding and abetting crimes.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The ICC launched a preliminary probe in 2015 into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and the Palestinian territories, in the wake of the Gaza war the previous year.\n<\/p>\n
\n It has yet to move to the next stage and open a full-blown investigation which could possibly lead to charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Palestinians announced a fresh push against Israel at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, a day after the United States said it was closing their Washington mission partly over the campaign. Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said it had submitted a new complaint over an Israeli \"war crime\" against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-38789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n