Israel says Palestinians hypocritical for joining ICC

Israel denounced as hypocritical Wednesday the Palestinian decision to join the International Criminal Court in order to seek to prosecute officials from the Jewish state.

“The Palestinian decision to join the ICC to initiate judicial proceedings against Israel is political, cynical and hypocritical,” the foreign ministry said.

Palestine formally joined the ICC Wednesday in a closed-door ceremony at the court’s headquarters in The Hague.

“The government of the Palestinian Authority, which is associated with the deadly terrorist Hamas committing war crimes... is the last to be able to threaten legal action” before the court, a statement said.

Unilateral Palestinian actions such as joining the ICC are “violations of the principles established between the two parties with the support of the international community to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” it added.