Criminal Court, a move that could open the door to possible war crime
indictments against Israeli officials despite uncertainty over its
wider ramifications.
The accession on Wednesday is another landmark in the Palestinian
diplomatic and legal international campaign, which gained steam in
2014.
The Palestinians moved to join The Hague-based court on January 2, in
a process that was finalised on Wednesday, setting the scene for
potential legal action.
"Palestine has and will continue to use all legitimate tools within
its means in order to defend itself against Israeli colonisation and
other violations of international law," said senior Palestinian
official Saeb Erakat.
Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull, reporting from The Hague, said despite their
membership, the Palestinians may still have to wait for the ICC to
begin investigating Israelis accused of war crimes.
"This is such a heavily politicised case, that the court will have to
think hard before taking action against the Israelis. It may be years
before we something."
Diana Chehade, a former ICC official, told Al Jazeera, preliminary
examinations could be completed by the end of this year, but the court
would not investigate cases already being looked in to by other
judicial institutions.
"Based on the principle of complimentarity, the ICC would not
investigate if an Israeli judicial institution is investigating a war
crime to ICC standards," Chehade said.
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