PA announces new gov. body to organize evidence for the ICC – defying US
The PA/PLO is institutionalizing its cooperation with the ICC by creating a dedicated body to collect and provide evidence against Israelis, directly defying U.S. policy opposing Palestinian support for ICC action against Israel.
Head of PLO Department of Human Rights Qassem Awad: "We have dozens of documents, recordings, and records that were provided to the International Criminal Court (ICC)… Recently, we in the PLO Human Rights Department established a huge national database [the Palestinian National Monitoring Center] dealing with all forms of [Israeli] crime according to the borders of June 4, 1967, and this will be announced and launched at the start of next month [August 2026] under the auspices of His Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen… We are strengthening our international relations with international legal institutions and expanding the sphere of pursuit of war criminals among the occupation's (i.e., Israel's) leaders. We are also preparing to conduct a trial according to the [Rome] Statute for Justice and the Law of Nations in addition to continuing our efforts at the International Criminal Court and at the EU Court of Justice."
[Voice of Palestine Radio, Facebook page, July 20, 2026]
Executive Order 14203 signed by US President Trump on Feb. 6, 2025, called for "tangible and significant consequences" to be enforced against "any foreign person determined by the Secretary of State… to have directly engaged in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute a protected person," including "our close ally Israel." It added, "For the purposes of this order: (a) the term 'person' means an individual or entity; (b) the term 'entity' means a government or instrumentality of such government."
Despite US President Trump's Executive Order, the PA has continued to work against Israel through the ICC, even after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed sanctions on the PA for working with the ICC and violating the Order in July 2025. The sanctions followed a detailed report by Palestinian Media Watch sent to Rubio, which documented the PA's violations.
The Palestinian National Monitoring Center was opened in July 2026 by the PLO Department of Human Rights and Civil Society to document alleged human rights violations by Israel.