The United States will impose sanctions against the personnel of the International Criminal Court (TPI) who have participated in causes against Washington, American citizens, or allies such as Israel. This is indicated by a new executive order that the Republican President has signed this Thursday in the Oval Office, and that explicitly criticizes the decision of this Court responsible for processing war crimes and against humanity to issue against the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, and his then Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, as suspects of war crimes during the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Penalizations include economic sanctions such as the freezing of goods in US territory, in addition to travel prohibitions for those closest officials and their closest relatives, indicates the text of the executive order disseminated by the White House. The State Department will have sixty days to present the names of people to sanction.
“The TPI has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel, since neither of the two countries is a signatory of the Rome Statute or member of the Court. Neither of them has ever recognized the jurisdiction of the TIP, and both are flourishing democracies whose armed forces strictly adhere to the laws of war, ”argues the text of the order. “Without a legitimate base, the Court has established its jurisdiction and has opened preliminary investigations that affect people from the United States and some allies, including Israel, and has further abused its power by issuing arrest orders against” Netanyahu and Gallant.
Those steps, the document continues, “feel a dangerous precedent” that endangers American military “by exposing them to harassment, abuse and possible detention”, and harms “the national security” of the country.
The Executive Order arrives when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu, for meetings with US authorities. Netanyahu saw Trump in the White House on Tuesday, and both leaders offered a joint press conference in which and expel about two million Palestinians from the strip. This Thursday he clarified that the United States would take care of the territory.
The signature of the order in the Oval Office also occurs a week after the Democratic opposition in the Senate blocked an attempt by the Republican majority of sanctioning the TPI for its decision against the Israeli authorities.
It is not the first time that the United States takes measures against the international body based in The Hague. Already during Donald Trump’s first term, in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions against prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of his advisors for his investigations on possible war crimes perpetrated by US soldiers in Afghanistan.
Trump had already threatened during his electoral campaign with new measures against the TPI. In December, the President of the Court, Judge Tomoko Akane, had warned that the imposition of US sanctions “would quickly undermine the court operations in all cases and situations, and would even endanger his own existence.”
The TPI began operating in 2002 as the only permanent instance to judge war crimes and against humanity, crimes of genocide and territorial aggression when member states do not want or can do so for themselves. It has the support of numerous countries and the European Union, but not that of nations such as the United States, Russia, China or Israel. All of them fear that this institution could be used to judge its citizens for political reasons.
In May, the chief prosecutor of this organ of 125 people, the British Karim Khan, found that there are “reasonable reasons to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant were “criminally responsible” for war crimes and against humanity in Gaza. The lawyer also asked the judges to arrest three leaders from Hamas, including his boss in Gaza Yahia Sinwar -a world to Israeli hands last September. Although Israel is not a member of the TPI, the step increased the pressure on that government and complicated the displacements outside its leaders.
