On February 5, 2021, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its decision [3] on the Court's territorial jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine (see also ICC press release [4]). The decision follows the December 2019 request by the ICC Prosecutor pursuant to Article 19(3) of the Rome Statute. Pre-Trial Chamber I referenced, inter alia, UN General Assembly Resolution 67/19 (which accorded non-member observer State status in the UN to Palestine), which referred to "the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their State of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967" (emphasis in original). A number of additional resolutions were worded similarly. On that basis, the Chamber concluded that the ICC's jurisdiction extends to the territories Israel has occupied since 1967, i.e., Gaza and the West Bank.

Judge Péter Kovács filed a 163-page partly dissenting opinion [5] which disagrees with the majority's conclusion and reasoning on the issue of "whether Palestine can be considered '[t]he State on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred" under Article 12(2)(a) of the Rome Statute.

Judge Perrin De Brichambaut wrote a partly separate opinion [6] which agrees with the conclusion that Article 19(3) applies in the case, but disagrees with the reasoning behind that conclusion.