Qadri Abu Bakr, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority’s Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, said today that President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered the preparing of an urgent file of the names of sick Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention to refer it to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.
Abu Bakr told WAFA that the decision comes in the context of ICC’s recent resolution on opening a probe into Israeli war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, including crimes against Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
He said the crimes to be referred to ICC include the deliberate medical negligence practiced by Israeli authorities against Palestinian prisoners, as well as the Israeli government’s withholding of millions of dollars since February in tax revenue payable to the Palestinian Authority, equivalent to the amount of the welfare salaries paid by the PA to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and to former prisoners.
On December 20, the Prosecutor of the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, announced today that its office was going to open an investigation into Israeli crimes against the Palestinians in the occupied territories. The Palestinians welcomed the decision.
