By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and JOSHUA GOODMAN, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an govt order imposing sanctions on the Worldwide Legal Courtroom over investigations of Israel, a detailed U.S. ally.
Neither the U.S. nor Israel are members of or acknowledge the courtroom, which has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged struggle crimes over his army response in Gaza after the Hamas assault towards Israel in October 2023. 1000’s of Palestinians, together with youngsters, have been killed in the course of the Israeli army’s response.
The order Trump signed accuses the ICC of participating in “illegitimate and baseless actions focusing on America and our shut ally Israel” and of abusing its energy by issuing “baseless arrest warrants” towards Netanyahu and his former protection minister, Yoav Gallant.
“The ICC has no jurisdiction over the US or Israel,” the order states, including that the courtroom had set a “harmful precedent” with its actions towards each international locations.
Trump’s motion got here as Netanyahu was visiting Washington. He and Trump held talks Tuesday on the White Home. Netanyahu spent a few of Thursday assembly lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The order says the U.S. will impose “tangible and vital penalties” on these chargeable for the ICC’s “transgressions.” Actions might embody blocking property and property and never permitting ICC officers, workers and family to enter the US.
Human rights activists stated sanctioning courtroom officers would have a chilling impact and run counter to U.S. pursuits in different battle zones the place the courtroom is investigating.
“Victims of human rights abuses world wide flip to the Worldwide Legal Courtroom once they have nowhere else to go, and President Trump’s govt order will make it more durable for them to seek out justice,” stated Charlie Hogle, workers legal professional with American Civil Liberties Union’s Nationwide Safety Mission. “The order additionally raises severe First Modification issues as a result of it places individuals in the US susceptible to harsh penalties for serving to the courtroom determine and examine atrocities dedicated anyplace, by anybody.”
Hogle stated the order “is an assault on each accountability and free speech.”
“You may disagree with the courtroom and the way in which it operates, however that is past the pale,” Sarah Yager, Washington director of Human Rights Watch, stated in an interview previous to the announcement.
Like Israel, the U.S. is just not among the many courtroom’s 124 members and has lengthy harbored suspicions {that a} “International Courtroom” of unelected judges might arbitrarily prosecute U.S officers. A 2002 legislation authorizes the Pentagon to liberate any American or U.S. ally held by the courtroom. In 2020, Trump sanctioned chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, over her determination to open an inquiry into struggle crimes dedicated by all sides, together with the U.S., in Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, these sanctions have been lifted below President Joe Biden and the U.S. started to tepidly cooperate with the tribunal — particularly after Khan in 2023 charged Russian President Vladimir Putin with struggle crimes in Ukraine.
Driving that turnaround was Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who organized conferences in Washington, New York and Europe between Khan and GOP lawmakers who’ve been among the many courtroom’s fiercest critics.
Now, Graham says he feels betrayed by Khan — and is vowing to crush the courtroom in addition to the economic system of any nation that tries to implement the arrest warrant towards Netanyahu.
“This can be a rogue courtroom. This can be a kangaroo courtroom,” Graham stated in an interview in December. “There are locations the place the courtroom makes excellent sense. Russia is a failed state. Folks fall out of home windows. However I by no means in my wildest goals imagined they’d go after Israel, which has probably the most unbiased authorized techniques on the planet.”
“The authorized concept they’re utilizing towards Israel has no limits and we’re subsequent,” he added.
Biden had referred to as the warrants an abomination and Trump’s nationwide safety adviser, Mike Waltz, has accused the courtroom of getting an antisemitic bias.
Any sanctions might cripple the courtroom by making it more durable for its investigators to journey and by compromising U.S.-developed expertise to safeguard proof. The courtroom final 12 months suffered a significant cyberattack that left workers unable to entry recordsdata for weeks.
Some European international locations are pushing again. The Netherlands, in an announcement late final 12 months, referred to as on different ICC members “to cooperate to mitigate dangers of those attainable sanctions, in order that the courtroom can proceed to hold out its work and fulfil its mandate.”
Goodman reported from Miami.
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