Feb. 7 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has signed an executive authorizing economic sanctions against the International Criminal Court for pursuing “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the United States and Israel, prompting swift condemnation from legal and human rights organizations for attacking the rule of law.
Trump signed the executive order Thursday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was in the United States for meetings with U.S. officials, including Trump.
The ICC has been a target of Trump’s since his first administration, issuing sanctions against the Netherlands-based court in 2020 over its war crimes investigations of the U.S. military in Afghanistan — sanctions that President Joe Biden would rescind the following year.
It also continues a trend of Trump attacking international organizations that have been critical of his decisions or he sees as being a threat to U.S. interests, as seen in his withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Trump’s executive order
The executive order Trump signed Thursday accuses the ICC of asserting jurisdiction over the United States and Israel, which are not signatories to the court, and having abused its power by issuing “baseless” arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and Israel’s former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“The ICC’s recent actions against Israel and the United States set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former United States personnel, including active service members of the Armed Forces, by exposing them to harassment, abuse and possible arrest,” the order said, seemingly in reference to Brazil opening a war crimes investigation in January into an Israeli soldier vacationing in the country.
“This malign conduct in turn threatens to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States Government and our allies, including Israel.”
The order authorizes the United States to “impose tangible and significant consequences” against ICC officials working on investigations the United States deems a threat to national security. The punitive measures include the blocking of property and assets as well as the suspension of entry to the United States of ICC officials, employees and agents as well as their immediate family members.
Condemnation and praise for Trump’s move
Netanyahu — who earlier this week in a joint press conference praised Trump for being “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House” — thanked the American leader online late Thursday for sanctioning the ICC.
“The ICC waged a ruthless campaign against Israel as a trial run for action against America,” he said in a statement.
“President Trump’s Executive Order protects the sovereignty of both countries and its brave soldiers.”
The ICC, which has 125 partner nations, issued a statement condemning the executive order, saying it seeks to harm its independence and impartial judicial work.
“The Court stands firmly by its personnel,” it said, “and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all Situations before it.”
Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp also responded to the sanctions by saying in a statement that the Netherlands “regrets” the executive order as “the court’s work is essential in the fight against impunity.”
Amnesty International, on the other hand, was full-throated in its condemnation of Trump’s executive order, describing it as a message that states Israel is above the law and international justice while being an endorsement of Israel’s alleged crimes.
“Today’s executive order is vindictive, it is aggressive. It is a brutal step that seeks to undermine and destroy what the international community has painstakingly constructed over decades, if not centuries: global rules that are applicable to everyone and aim to deliver justice for all,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in a statement.
“The sanctions constitute another betrayal of our common humanity.”
Vincent Warren, executive director of the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights, similarly described the executive order as an attack on the rule of law in order to protect Israel.
“Trump continues to make clear that he would rather protect war criminals like Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant than people subjected to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Warren said in a statement.
“The broad scope of the Executive Order is intended to embolden perpetrators across the world and to inhibit the pursuit of international justice against the most powerful.”
Meanwhile, members of Trump’s Republican Party were quick to show support for the executive order, with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina calling the ICC “a rogue organization” that has “gone off the rails” by exercising jurisdiction over countries that are not party to the Rome Statute that established the court.
ICC arrest warrants
The ICC arrest warrants issued for Netanyahu and Gallant in November accuse them of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to their war in Gaza, including allegations of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and deliberately directing attacks against a civilian population, among others.
Simultaneously, the court issued arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, who have since been assassinated, over the Iran-backed military group’s bloody Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis, saw 251 people kidnapped and ignited the 15-month-long war.
Then-U.S. President Joe Biden, a self-proclaimed Zionist and a staunch supporter of Israel, condemned the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant as being “outrageous” and accused the ICC of equating Israel with Hamas.
Israel — which denies the accusations — has been accused of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians as well as war crimes in its war against Hamas.
Last month, the House passed a bill to sanction the ICC over its Israel arrest warrants, but failed to make it out of the Senate.
The fighting in Gaza came to a halt last month with a fragile cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, brokered by the United States — but not before more than 45,000 Palestinians were killed and much of Gaza leveled.
