B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International strongly condemns Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s reported unilateral application to some 20 international bodies, including the membership of the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

Abbas, who has engaged in a governing partnership with Hamas—the radical Islamist terrorist movement that rejects Israel’s existence and has repeatedly prompted regional bloodshed—has threatened to escalate a campaign to malign and harm Israel internationally by joining the court and targeting Israelis with war crimes charges there. 

The step follows the United Nations Security Council’s decision Tuesday to reject a Palestinian ultimatum for forcing the unconditional fulfillment by Israel of Palestinians’ political demands.

Abbas’ path of confrontation and unilateralism gravely violates his responsibility to end the conflict through meaningful direct negotiations and compromise with Israel.  His path also denies Israel basic guarantees of its security and recognition as a Jewish state.

The PA’s machinations—including the submission of a polarizing, unacceptable security council motion that had been poised to fail—have made patently clear its unpreparedness to make the hard decisions necessary to finally achieve peace and coexistence. 

In order to preserve the essential principle of conflict resolution through negotiation, and the fundamental right and duty of responsible states to combat terrorism, Palestinian exporting of political grievances to The Hague must be firmly rejected internationally. 

Otherwise, Middle Eastern tensions will only worsen, and Palestinians’ own atrocities, in stark contrast with the singular restraint of the region’s only pluralistic democracy, will surely come into sharper focus.

It is time for the PA to stop hijacking key international bodies and to begin contributing, as Israel long has, to a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.