Palestine criticizes 'biased, distorted' ICC report

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestine has criticized a new International Criminal Court (ICC) report on war crimes in the region, singling out its distortion or omission of facts and biased accounts of events.

Calling the report by ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda a matter of “great concern,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said late Thursday: "While the State of Palestine understands that the Report is not meant to purport to make any definite legal or factual determinations, this does not justify the distortion or complete omission of information relevant to those determinations.”

Al-Maliki said, in a statement released by official Wafa news agency, that the report relies on misleading, politicized narratives under the cover of false equivalence rather than objective and accurate descriptions of relevant facts.

The report serves to undermine the ICC’s credibility, objectivity, and independence, he added.

Earlier on Thursday, the ICC report, released in The Hague, spoke of possible crimes by both Israel and the Palestinians, including Israel’s use of sometimes deadly force against protesters along the Israel-Gaza border fence, and Palestinian militants’ rocket fire and alleged use of human shields in Gaza.

At the Palestinians’ request, in 2015 Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation into alleged violations of international law following the 2014 war Israel launched against the Gaza Strip.

But according to al-Maliki, the report fails to clearly condemn Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara