RAMALLAH, Monday, July 22, 2019 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said today that it will step up efforts to ensure criminal and legal accountability for Israeli war crimes in Jerusalem.

The ministry condemned in a statement what it described as Israel’s “war crime of ethnic cleansing and mass transfer” committed against hundreds of Palestinian citizens in the Sur Baher neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem.

“This crime is happening at the watch of the International Criminal Court and Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, which has delayed launching an investigation into the situation in Palestine for too long, effectively denying the Palestinian people their right to justice and redress. This is a miscarriage of justice that must end,” it said.

The Ministry said it “holds members of the Israeli government and army as well as judges of the High Court personally and criminally responsible for this crime and shall pursue all available legal channels to ensure that justice is served and accountability is achieved.”

In the past, it added, “the Palestinian leadership has warned of Israel’s criminal and colonial agenda and has called on the international community to assume its standing moral and legal responsibilities to confront these illegal agendas and hold Israel accountable. Regrettably, the international community’s inaction and refusal to hold Israel to the international standard of accountability has emboldened Israel to escalate its campaign of mass expulsion and displacement.”

It called “on responsible international actors to break this cycle of criminality and impunity and impose sanctions on Israel in response to its grave violations of international humanitarian law and international criminal law.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates concluded its statement by reiterating “its determination to work with principled friends and allies around the world and to mobilize action in multilateral organizations, including the United Nations, the Human Rights Council, to confront Israel’s criminal conduct and provide the needed protection for the Palestinian people. Palestine will step up its concerted efforts to ensure that Israel is held legally, criminally, and economically accountable for these war crimes.”

M.K.