Eight parliamentarians from Gaza, close to Hamas, are asking the International Criminal Court (ICC) to order the freezing and confiscation of Israeli state property in compensation for the damage caused by the blockade imposed on the Palestinian coastal strip. Their lawyers estimate the damage at 25 billion dollars (nearly 23 billion euros) since the beginning of the quarantine of this territory of 365 square kilometers, by the Israeli forces, in 2007.
The singular caution shown by the International Criminal Court on the Palestinian file – an investigation was opened into the crimes committed in the occupied territories in February 2021, but the investigation has made little progress since – has not discouraged the lawyers .
On the sunny forecourt of the Court this Monday, June 26, the French lawyer Gilles Devers, the Palestinian Khaled Al-Shouli and the Moroccan Abdelmajid Mrari are preparing two envelopes: the first, intended for the prosecutor Karim Khan, is a ” reporting for crimes against humanity and war crimes, similar to other reports filed by Mr. Devers over the past decade; the second envelope contains a request to the address of the Fund for Victims (FPV), a body linked to the Court, responsible for receiving and managing donations and organizing the allocation of reparations for victims of crimes on which the ICC prosecutor is investigating.
To arrive at the amount of 25 billion dollars, the lawyers relied on a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) of August 2020, quantifying the cost of “ closure of the Gaza Strip “. According to this report, the economic cost of the occupation in Gaza between 2007 and 2018, which includes the closure, economic and movement restrictions, and military operations, amounts to 16.7 billion dollars. ” That’s nearly 1.5 billion a year “, says Gilles Devers, so 25 billion today.
“Spoils of War”
In their request, the eight parliamentarians from Gaza do not ask the FPV to pay this sum. ” It would be perfectly illogical for it to be the contributions of the Member States [de la CPI] or other voluntary contributions, who bear the consequences” of one “policy – freely decided – by a prosperous statebelieves Gilles Devers. Funds available in Treasury coffers [Israélien] or nearby structures, which are enriched by the Palestinian misfortune, must be considered as spoils of war, and be subject to seizures, with a view to confiscation “, he believes.
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