Latest in Palestinian Authority
The ICC prosecutor’s determination of jurisdiction relies on a controversial and legally problematic recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Order from Chaos.
Earlier this fall, Congress enacted a new law with potentially dramatic implications for U.S. foreign policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA) exposes foreign organizations that accept certain forms of U.S. foreign assistance to the possibility of terrorism-related civil litigation in U.S. federal courts.
The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is only the most recent exchange that the Israeli military and other observers worry could escalate into war.
After More Than a Thousand Arrests, Protests Subside in Iran
Saudi Arabia’s Power Play
Mahmoud Abbas will be remembered as a transformative figure in Palestinian politics. He was a driving force in reaching the Oslo Accords and in standing up the Palestinian Authority, and has overseen the tumultuous 13 years since the death of Fatah founder and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat. Abbas has always lacked the notoriety of Arafat, and despite being president of the Palestinian Authority for more than a decade and a key figure in the peace process for decades more, there’s never been an English-language biography of the man until now.
Last week, the courts once again restricted the ability of terrorism victims to collect compensation, this time on grounds of personal jurisdiction.
Recap
Critics of state investigations of alleged violations of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) often accuse those inquiries of being insufficiently independent from the chain of command. Medicins Sans (MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders) raised this argument about the recently completed—and exhaustive—U.S. investigation into the October 2015 bombing of a MSF facility in Kunduz, Afghanistan.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has just released a detailed argument that International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda should seek a full investigation of the situation in Palestine. The prosecutor began a preliminary examination of the situation in January 2015, and HRW is clearly concerned that Palestine may be headed into that category of long-running and inconclusive preliminary examinations that includes Afghanistan, Colombia, and (until recently) Georgia.