After officially submitting its “war crimes” case against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) last Thursday, the Palestinian Authority (PA) expressed hopes that the ICC will act on the documents it submitted and launch an investigation against the Jewish state.

PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who is a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist group and the head of the PA’s supreme committee responsible for maintaining contacts with the ICC, described what he expects to happen next.

He said that after filing complaints against Israel over its counter-terror Operation Protective Edge last summer, as well as against the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria and the treatment of jailed terrorists, the next step will likely see the ICC passing the complaints to its legal council after an initial check and gathering statistics so that the council can decide whether or not to open an investigation.

Erekat said that the PA continues to feel pressure from the US and other sources over its move at the ICC, which as a unilateral international step constitutes a breach of the 1993 Oslo Accords that formed the PA.

He vowed that the PA will push ahead against Israel regardless, not out of “revenge” against Israel but for “justice.”

The former negotiator said that peace talks won’t be renewed until Israel submits to the PA’s demands – the last round of talks were torpedoed by the PA last April when it signed a unity deal with Hamas after joining numerous international treaties unilaterally.

Erekat prepared a document last month revealing the PA strategy in conducting a diplomatic assault against Israel.

He suggested canceling the PLO’s diplomatic recognition of Israel, negating any suggestion for temporary or partial agreements, working in partnership with the terrorist groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas, and pressing in the international sphere to prevent any Palestinian Arab terrorist organization from being put on terrorist lists.

The PLO leader also called for waging a diplomatic struggle to release all Arab terrorists from Israeli jails, and to support the “popular struggle” against Israel in a thinly veiled call for terrorist attacks.