Trump signs order to sanction International Criminal Court over Israel investigations!
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court over its investigations into Israel, a close US ally. Neither the US nor Israel are members of or recognize the court.
Israel is a close ally of the US, and the court recently issued an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his actions against Palestinians in Gaza following Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, including children, have been killed in the Israeli military response. The order Trump signed accuses the ICC of engaging in “illegal and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel” and of abusing its power by issuing “baseless arrest warrants” against Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
“The ICC has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel,” the order said, adding that the court had set a “dangerous precedent” with its actions against both countries. Trump’s move came as Netanyahu was visiting Washington. He and Trump held talks Tuesday at the White House, and Netanyahu spent part of Thursday meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The order says the US will impose “tangible and significant consequences” on those responsible for ICC “violations.” Actions could include freezing property and assets and barring ICC officials, employees and relatives from entering the United States. Human rights activists said sanctioning court officials would have a chilling effect and run counter to US interests in other conflict zones where the court is investigating.
"Victims of human rights abuses around the world turn to the International Criminal Court when they have nowhere else to go, and President Trump's executive order will make it harder for them to find justice," said Charlie Hogle, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project.
Like Israel, the US is not among the court’s 124 members and has long harbored suspicions that a “Global Court” of unelected judges could prosecute US officials. A 2002 law authorizes the Pentagon to release any US or US ally held by the court. In 2020, Trump sanctioned chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, over her decision to open an investigation into war crimes committed by all parties, including the US, in Afghanistan.
However, those sanctions were lifted under President Joe Biden, and the US began to slowly cooperate with the court, especially after Khan in 2023 accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes in Ukraine. Any sanctions could cripple the court by making it harder for its investigators to travel and by compromising technology developed by the US to protect evidence. The court last year suffered a major cyberattack that left staff unable to access files for weeks.
Some European countries are backing away. The Netherlands, in a statement late last year, called on other ICC members “ to cooperate to mitigate the risks of these potential sanctions, so that the court can continue to carry out its work and fulfill its mandate.”
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