PLO to Request ICC Investigation of Israeli Settlement Activity

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) decided to submit an official request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate illegal Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi told Ma’an on Monday.

Official Palestinian Authority (PA) Wafa news agency reported on Sunday that the Executive Committee had “asked” the ICC to begin investigations, though Ashrawi said that the committee had only made the decision to move forward with submitting an official investigation request, Ma'an reported.

According to Wafa, during an Executive Committee meeting on Sunday, the PLO condemned Israel for “ethnic cleansing and racial segregation,” which they highlighted were “considered war crimes that should be investigated by the ICC.”

A PLO statement reportedly accused Israel of carrying out a “silent ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, Hebron, and in other areas of the occupied West Bank particularly exposed to Israel’s settlement project.
  [farsnews.com]
 25/9/17