Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi speaks during a news conference in front of the Liebermann Villa at the Wannsee lake in Berlin, Germany, August 27, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Michele Tantussi/Pool/File Photo

JNS.org – Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi spoke to US Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Monday, where he thanked Blinken for American support in the wake of the International Criminal Court’s decision to open a war crimes case against Israel.

“I spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and thanked him for the administration’s public support of Israel in the face of the outrageous decision by judges of the ICC,” Ashkenazi said on Twitter. “I emphasized to the Secretary of State that the tribunal’s decision is fundamentally wrong, discriminatory, and that it jeopardizes the rare opportunity to promote peace in our region.”

A three-judge panel ruled that Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem are within its jurisdiction, as “Palestine [is] a State party to the ICC Rome Statute.” The 2-1 decision cleared the way for ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to open a war crimes probe into actions as the Israel Defense Forces.

Shortly after the ruling, the US State Department condemned the decision, noting that the Palestinians do not qualify as a sovereign state and that America has “serious concerns about the ICC’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel.”