The Palestinians have filed a lawsuit on August 3 against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC), which includes evidence of “settler terrorism” after a recent arson attack in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Jewish militants set fire to a home in Nablus, killing an 18-month-old baby, Ali Dawabsha, and injuring his parents and brother. Palestine’s Foreign Minister, Riad al-Malki, has informed ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda about the latest atrocities in the West Bank, such as the death of teenage demonstrator Laith al-Khaldi, who was at a protest against the Israeli settlement near Ramallah on July 31 when he was shot and died the next day from the injuries that he had sustained. According to al-Malki, “The prosecutor of the international court received the case, which is a continuation to the case we submitted to the court on June 25, which included facts related to the last Israeli military offensive waged on Gaza, the Israeli settlements and the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.” The Hague-based ICC deals with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas signed the ICC treaty, the Rome Statute, because the PA believes that the Israeli military operations in Gaza during July and August 2014 were war crimes. Over two thousand Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the conflict and tens of thousands of homes in Gaza destroyed. It still remains to be seen whether Palestine’s membership of the ICC will help broker peace between Israel and Palestine where intermittent peace talks have failed in the past, or whether such a prospect is even attainable for the near future. However, it does seem that the lawsuit is putting some pressure on the Israeli government to salvage its public image. The Israeli security cabinet has said that they will crack down on Jewish extremists and have approved harsher detention and interrogation methods. “An interrogation method like tiltul (the violent shaking of a suspect), or anything that is done when it comes to Palestinian terrorists — the same thing should be done when it comes to a Jewish terrorist,” said Interior Security Minister Gilad Erdan. It seems that the reason for the Israeli government’s shift in policy to now prosecute Jewish extremists is a consequence of the international pressure that this case, involving the death of a baby, has produced by being brought to the ICC, thereby gaining the attention of the world. However, the Israeli government has not even acknowledged the crimes against the Palestinians that the state has committed. Any condemnation by the Israeli state of Jewish extremists capturing land and perpetrating acts of violence in Palestine will be hypocritical if the state itself continues to do likewise, perpetuates its occupation of Palestine and attacks or arrests innocent Palestinians, as it has been doing since its creation. *