DHAKA: Turning up the pressure on Israel, the Palestinians announced Wednesday that they are joining the International Criminal Court to pursue war-crimes charges against the Jewish state — a risky, high-stakes move that brought threats of retaliation from Israel and criticism from the U.S.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas acted a day after suffering a defeat in the U.N. Security Council, which voted down a resolution setting a three-year deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel.

"We want to complain. There's aggression against us, against our land. The Security Council disappointed us," Abbas said.

Turning to the international court at The Hague marks a major policy shift, transforming Abbas' relations with Israel from tense to openly hostile. The ultimate goal is to pressure Israel into withdrawing from the territories and agreeing to Palestinian statehood.

The strategy carries risks, including the possibility the Palestinians themselves could be accused of war crimes over rocket attacks by the extremist group Hamas on Israeli population centers and other violence against Jewish targets.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take unspecified "retaliatory steps." In Washington, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said the U.S. was "deeply troubled" by the Palestinians' "escalatory step." He said it was "entirely counterproductive and does nothing to further the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a sovereign and independent state."

Israel could take a number of retaliatory actions, including building more settlements, restricting financial transfers to the Palestinians, or curbing certain privileges. The U.S. has not said how it will react, but it provides hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians.

At the international court, the Palestinians could seek to have Israeli military or political figures prosecuted for alleged crimes involving settlement construction on occupied lands or actions by the military that cause heavy civilian casualties, for instance.

Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction. And the court has no police force and no authority to go into Israel and arrest suspects. But it could issue arrest warrants that would make it difficult for Israeli officials to travel abroad.

Source: news.Yahoo.com

BDST: 1033 HRS, JAN 01, 2015