Wiesenthal Center: Obama Administration Should Denounce Palestinian Move at ICC

Move MayBe Legally Meaningless but Speaks Volumes Geo-politically

Los Angeles, CA – The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has led US efforts to brokeran Israel-Palestinian peace deal to denounce the Palestinian move to join the International Criminal Court.

“Today’s announcement that the Palestinians have joined the International Criminal Court (ICC)provides concrete proof that the current Palestinian leadership has no interest in a negotiated two-state peace deal with the Jewish State,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Dean andFounder and Associate Dean of the leading Jewish Human Rights group. “Joining the International Court today may ultimately prove meaningless in a legal sense, but geo-politically, it speaksvolumes. The Palestinians may have put the nail in the coffin of a two-state solution. If Mahmoud Abbas was truly committed to peace, he would not be seeking the indictment of his neighbors – thevery leaders he is supposed to be negotiating with – for the ‘crime’ of defending themselves against Hamas-led terrorism,” Center Officials added.

“The Obama Administration, which has been especially critical of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu,should immediately denounce today’s move by the Palestinian leaders – taken despite repeated American warnings – that violates all previous commitments to reach a two-state solution throughdirect negotiations with Israel before seeking membership in international organizations including the UN and the ICC,” Hier and Cooper concluded.

Center Officials also noted that the ICC move may have also broken US law, which could lead to thecancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars of US funds designated for the Palestinians.

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About Simon Wiesenthal Center: The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000member families in the United States. The center is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament(Parlatino). For more information, visit www.wiesenthal.com, contact the public relations department at (310) 553-9036 orvisit www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter.