These recent developments follow a statement made by the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, on 20 December 2019, in which she announced her satisfaction that all the statutory criteria under the Rome Statute of the ICC for the opening of an investigation in Palestine have been met. One day prior to the German petition, the Czech Republic also had requested joining the court proceedings in favor of Israel. According to the petition, this goal could only be achieved through direct negotiations rather than court proceedings. The petition did, however, include the call for a “negotiated two-state solution and hence the goal of an independent, democratic and viable state of Palestine”. In its statement, Germany sided with the Israeli argument that the ICC had no jurisdiction over the Palestinian Territories since they did not constitute a state under the criteria of international law. On 14 February 2020, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Germany filed a request to the International Criminal Court to become a “friend of the court” (amicus curiae) with regard to the question of the scope of territorial jurisdiction the court may exercise in the Palestinian Territories.
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