International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda surely felt compelled to announce an investigation of Israel’s conduct in the occupation so as not to appear to be completely failing her job, but her referral of a “question” concerning the “territory” under jurisdiciton to a “Pre-trial Chamber” of the court risks dragging this process out by months, maybe even years.
While the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the killing of an entire family in Gaza was a “mistake,” the New York Times allows the Israeli military to explain that “civilian casualties are unavoidable in Gaza’s teeming neighborhoods.” And, hammering home the propaganda point, the paper says Israel “takes numerous precautions to prevent unnecessary civilian casualties.”