The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is slated to hold a hearing next Thursday to look into a Palestinian’s lawsuit filed against senior Israeli army officials for their direct involvement in an airstrike on his family’s home that killed six relatives during the 2014 war on Gaza.
The war crimes case has been filed by Ismail Ziyadah a Palestinian who was born in Gaza and is also a Dutch citizen against former army chief of staff Benny Gantz (currently army minister) and former commander of the Israeli air force Amir Eshel (currently director general of the Israeli army ministry).
Ziyadah’s mother three brothers sister-in-law and 12-year-old nephew were killed in an aerial attack on the family home in the Gaza refugee camp of al-Bureij by an Israeli warplane on July 20 2014. A guest who visited the family at the time was also killed.
According to a statement released by the Justice for Palestine Campaign Ziyadah filed an appeal against the first ruling that had been issued by The Hague district court on January 29 2020 when it claimed it was not competent to rule in a civil case brought by a Dutch-Palestinian man against Gantz and Eshel.
The court said at the time that Gantz and Eshel “enjoy functional immunity” because they acted in an official capacity and that it did not have jurisdiction in this case.
Ziyadah said the court was wrong when it cited the functional immunity of the accused to dismiss the case affirming that war criminals do not enjoy such immunity.
Ziyadah’s lawyer filed the lawsuit knowing for sure that Dutch courts can rule on war crimes committed abroad in civil proceedings for Dutch citizens who are unable to get a fair trial elsewhere.
