Donald Trump has signed an executive order approving aggressive economic sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) denounced groups of “illegal and unfounded conduct” targeting the United States and Israel.
This order grants the US president a broad authority to impose a travel ban on assets and his family if it determines that the US is involved in an effort to investigate or prosecute the US and certain allies. .
The hostile lawsuit against the ICC comes in response to a court’s decision in November that Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Joavalant, will issue an arrest warrant on alleged crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
In the order, Trump said the ICC “abused its power” by issuing a warrant claiming it had “set a dangerous precedent” that put US citizens and their military personnel at risk.
“This malicious act threatens to infringe on US sovereignty and undermine the important national security and foreign policy activities of the US government, including Israel, and our allies,” he added.
Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the ICC, a permanent court of last resort for prosecution of individuals accused of atrocities. In his order, Trump argued that the courts “should not take charge of the ICC’s jurisdiction” in the country “must respect the decision.”
The Israeli Prime Minister praised Trump’s moves strongly. Netanyahu posted: America and Israel defend against corrupt anti-American and anti-Semitic courts without jurisdiction or basis in which they engage in the law against us. ”
Trump said the US “imposes concrete and serious consequences on those responsible for ICC violations,” including blocking property and assets and halting ICC officials and their families from entering the United States. .
It was unclear whether the Trump administration would announce the names of specific individuals to be subject to sanctions. ICC officials are preparing sanctions to affect senior court officials, including Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.
On Thursday, ICC officials were working late into the night, waiting for news about the extent of the sanctions from Washington and which officials would be targeted individually.
The signing of the order comes days after Trump met with the Israeli Prime Minister in his oval office. Netanyahu was still in Washington on Thursday, but he spent part of the day he met lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Last week, a bill that had imposed drastic sanctions on the ICC in the Senate stagnated after Democrats refused to support the legislation.
Amnesty International Executive Director Agnes Kalamlad responded to Trump’s moves, the order stated, “sends a message that Israel surpasses the universal principles of law and international justice.”
“Today’s executive order is Vindictive. It’s offensive. This weakens what the international community has built up so hard for decades, if not centuries, for decades. It’s a brutal step to transform and destroy it.
Other activists said court officials had a calm effect and were against the interests of the US in other disputed zones 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 makes it difficult for them to find justice,” the National Security Project.
“The order also puts Americans in the United States seriously First Amendment concerns as the order is at risk of severe penalties to help courts identify and investigate atrocities committed everywhere. It causes it.”
After an ICC judge issued a warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant in November, the court was spoofing itself for a retaliatory move by the Trump administration.
Court officials, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, fear that sanctions could pose existential threats to judicial institutions, which were established in 2002 and have ratified the establishment law. Masu.
Several ICC sources told the Guardian last month that sanctions on superior court figures are difficult but easy to manage, but system-wide sanctions exist in judicial institutions as they block access to functions-dependent services. He said it would pose a threat.
The order signed by Trump on Thursday suggests that the US will target specific individuals listed in the document’s annex, but it was not immediately clear which individuals were included. .
In 2020, under another similar executive order, Trump, a former ICC prosecutor, Gambian, travel ban and assets frozen against one of her top officials.
The measure was launched in response to a decision by Benceuda in investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan and the occupied Palestinian territory. At the time, Bensoda was conducting a preliminary investigation into allegations of crimes committed by the Israeli military and Hamas.
In 2021, Benseuda upgraded the case to a formal criminal investigation. Current prosecutor Karim Khan inherited the investigation and accelerated it after the Hamas-led attack on October 7th and the fire in Gaza in Israel.
