‘Israel need not worry about Palestinian UN move’
...According to Sabel, the legal scholar, the Palestinians’ move is not much more than a symbolic act ostensibly intended to make them feel good about themselves. “They just joined treaties and there’s not much significance to this. Because Israel is in any case bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention and by the Human Rights Conventions, and it makes no difference whether ‘Palestine’ is a member or not.”
It is worthwhile noticing that the Palestinians refrained from joining any international organizations, Sabel said. “The reason is because the US cut off funding to any UN organization that would accept Palestine as a member at the moment, which is what they did at UNESCO, and UNESCO hurts,” he told The Times of Israel.
In 2011, UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — admitted “Palestine” as a full member.
It is also noteworthy that Abbas refrained from asking for membership in the International Criminal Court, where the Palestinians could theoretically sue Israeli leaders for war crimes or crimes against humanity, Sabel said.
The Palestinians know that if they joined the ICC, “every Palestinian would be in the future jurisdiction of the court, which I doubt whether they’re eager to do,” Sabel said. “Because it would mean that the Hamas, for instance, and the whole population of Gaza, would be subject to the jurisdiction of the court if they commit a war crime in the future.” However, Bassem Khoury, a former Palestinian minister of national economy, on Wednesday claimed that joining the ICC “may just be a matter of time.”
Read more: 'Israel need not worry about Palestinian UN move' | The Times of Israel
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-need-not-worry-about-palestinian-un-move/#ixzz2xkG97eh1
