US President Donald Trump last night ordered economic sanctions and travel restrictions against people working on International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations of American citizens or American allies such as Israel, repeating actions he took during his first term, BTA reported.
The decision coincides with a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, like his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the leader of the Palestinian movement “Hamas“, is wanted by the ICC for his role in the war in the Gaza Strip, Reuters notes.
In Trump's decree, the ICC is accused of “illegitimate and unfounded actions directed against America and its close ally Israel“ and of abusing its powers by “issuing unfounded arrest warrants“, the Associated Press notes. “The ICC has no jurisdiction in the United States or Israel“, the decree says, adding that the court has set a “dangerous precedent“ with its actions against both countries.
The order says the US will impose “tangible and significant consequences“ on those responsible for “misconduct“ at the ICC. Actions could include freezing property and assets and banning ICC officials and their relatives from entering the US.
Human rights activists have said that sanctioning court officials would run counter to US interests in other conflict zones where the court investigates. Last December, the court's president, Judge Tomoko Akane, warned that sanctions “would rapidly undermine the court's work in all situations and cases and threaten its very existence“.
During Trump's first administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by US soldiers.
However, those sanctions were lifted under President Joe Biden, and the US began to cooperate coolly with the tribunal – especially after current chief prosecutor Karim Khan indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023 for war crimes in Ukraine.
The driver of this turnaround was Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who organized meetings in Washington, New York and Europe between Khan and senior Republicans who were among the court’s fiercest critics.
Graham now says he feels betrayed by Khan – and vows to crush the court, as well as the economy of any country that tries to execute the arrest warrant against Netanyahu.
“This is a court of fraud. There are places where the court makes perfect sense, like Russia, where people are falling out of windows. But I never imagined in my wildest dreams that they would go after Israel, which has one of the most independent legal systems on the planet,” Graham said in an interview in December.
Biden called the orders an abomination, and Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Walz, accused the court of anti-Semitic bias.
The 125-member ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression against the territory of member states or their citizens. The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members of the organization.
Trump signed the order after Democrats in the U.S. Senate last week blocked a Republican-led effort to pass legislation establishing a sanctions regime targeting the judicial institution.