Omar Awadallah, the Palestinian Authority (PA) “assistant minister for the United Nations and its institutions”, announced on Sunday that preparations are currently being made for a visit to the "State of Palestine" by the Secretary General of the United Nations, which will take place at the end of September, and a visit by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which will take place in October.
In an interview with Voice of Palestine radio, Awadallah said that the Palestinian issue will be the focus of the monthly meeting of the Security Council, which will hold a special meeting regarding UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which stated that all the territory captured in 1967 is “occupied territory”.
At the same time, he added, preparations are being made for the next session of the General Assembly in which the renewal of the peace process will be discussed.
In recent years, the PA has submitted to the ICC information documenting what it claims are war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel, and it is pressuring the chief prosecutor to launch an investigation against decision makers in Israel at the political and military level.
The ICC’s former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced in late 2019 that she intends to open a full investigation into alleged Israeli “war crimes”, but before opening a full probe, asked the ICC to rule on the territory over which it has jurisdiction because of the "unique and highly contested legal and factual issues attaching to this situation."
She subsequently ruled that “Palestine” is a state and the ICC has jurisdiction involving its cases.
Bensouda was succeeded as ICC chief prosecutor by British lawyer Karim Khan, who was sworn in to the role in June of 2021.
Khan’s election as Bensouda’s successor in February of 2021 came exactly one week after the ICC ruled that Judea, Samaria, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem are within its jurisdiction, paving the way for a probe.
Khan has yet to taken any public action on the probe, but in December he said that he has a "goal" to make "a visit to Palestine" in 2023.