Mahmoud Abbas moved Wednesday for the Palestinians to join the International Criminal Court with the intention of pursuing war crimes charges against Israel.
“We want to complain. There’s aggression against us, against our land. The Security Council disappointed us,” Abbas said, according to the Associated Press.
The Palestinian president signed the official papers for Palestine to join the Rome Statute, the document that established the court, in a move that defied public warnings from the U.S. and Israel.
“There is no question mark as to what are the consequences, that there will be immediate American and Israeli financial sanctions,” Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, told the New York Times.
Abbas’ announcement comes a day after the U.N. Security Council failed to pass a resolution that would have set a 2017 withdrawal deadline from territories claimed by Palestine. The U.S. and Australia voted against the measure. Britain abstained, while France, Russia and China were among the major nations that voted in favor.
Palestine was admitted to the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 as a non-member observer state.
The Palestinians will have to wait 60 days before filing cases before the court.
