UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Palestinian People

The case almost ended abruptly when a judge dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims in August 2017, asserting that the matter was outside the court’s purview.  But the appeals court found that not all the issues at stake were political and beyond the court’s jurisdiction.  Its ruling came down to two pivotal questions: whether the court would have to determine who held sovereignty over the territory in question, and whether the judges were empowered to hear claims of genocide allegedly committed by Israeli settlers funded by the defendants.