Israeli group tells ICC that PA prime minister tortures his own people

Shurat HaDin filed complaints  to the ICC against Palestinian Authority prime minister Rami Hamdallah, and against the PA's intelligence chief Majid Faraj, accusing them of crimes against humanity.

But the complaints do not accuse them of doing anything bad to Israeli citizens. Rather, the complaints are about how they are responsible for torture in PA prisons!

THE COMPLAINTANT submits to the Prosecutor this communication concerning the criminal activities of Hamdallah, a citizen of Jordan who is simultaneously Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of the Palestinian Authority. 

Hamdallah has engaged in conduct in violation of Articles 7 (1) f) and 28 (2) of the Rome Statute. Hamdallah is criminally liable for the rampant torture undertaken by the Protective Security Service of the Ministry of the Interior because he is the superior official in overall charge of the Ministry of the Interior and of the Protective Security Service.

So Shurat HaDin is accusing them of crimes against fellow Arabs, not against Israelis!

A third complaint, against Jibril Rajoub, indeed accuses him of crimes against humanity for being responsible for rocket fire against Israelis.

I admit that this part surprised me:

The Court has jurisdiction ratione personæ because Hamdallah is a citizen of Jordan. The Court may exercise its jurisdiction over all acts committed by the citizen of a state party to the court, wherever those acts are committed.4 Jordan is a member state of the Court.5

Hamdallah is a citizen of Jordan because he was born in Anabta, in the Tulkarem District, in the West Bank, on August 10, 1958. Jordan controlled the West Bank at that time. Hamdallah is a Jordanian citizen under Jordanian law because he was born in an area under Jordanian control and is not Jewish.8 In 1954, the Jordanian Parliament extended citizenship to all non-Jews born or resident in all areas then under Jordanian control, including the West Bank. 9,10 The Jordanian Parliament has never repealed these statutes.11

The Court thus has jurisdiction ratione personæ over Hamdallah.

I know that many prominent West Bank Palestinians managed to retain their Jordanian citizenship after 1988 when Jordan disengaged from the area, but my impression was that most of them lost their citizenship then - or lost it by default as they no longer had national numbers, with which Jordanian citizens obtain services. Its footnote points to an HRW paper that shows that the legal basis for Jordan's actions are murky at best. The legal validity of Jordan seeming to remove nationality from all West Bank Jordanians is an interesting topic in itself.

(h/t Irene)