Former PM calls on ICC

*No Israel prosecutions for killing Palestinian civilians in occupied West Bank since start of decade.* Ehud Olmert, former prime minister of Israel, hopes to spur the International Criminal Court to intervene. Several former heads of the army, the police and the spy agencies are supporting the campaign. An Israeli lawyer (whose name I don't recognize) responds, "The system is programmed to manufacture impunity, not accountability. But it was smart enough to also have very rare occasions of accountability, that could be referred to as examples of how law enforcement was working" (so as to convince the ICC it had no basis to get involved). A Palestinian (whose name I don't recognize) responds, "Such Israeli critics often give the impression that settler violence could be tamed by simply ousting the (current) far right government. That would certainly have an effect, but it doesn’t recognise that the settlements are a project of the state that was shaped and led across the political spectrum." That is true; indeed, Olmert was a right-wing politician. Nonetheless, what he is doing now takes courage.