Peksha Nahata
Trump sanctions ICC over investigations into the U.S. and Israel, imposing financial and visa restrictions on officials.
7th February, 2025
Washington- President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its alleged targeting of the United States and Israel. The order imposes financial sanctions and visa restrictions against unnamed ICC officials and their families, should they carry on any investigation into citizens of the United States or U.S. allies. The move follows reports that the Trump administration had been preparing such measures.
ICC Investigations Spark U.S. Backlash
After issuing arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and various Hamas leaders, the ICC was met with bipartisan opposition in Washington last November. The court claimed that Netanyahu and Gallant had committed war crimes and used “starvation as a method of warfare” in their military actions against Gazan civilians. The allegations were denied as false and antisemitic by Israeli officials.
Trump’s executive order condemns the ICC actions, saying they create a “shameful moral equivalency” between the Israeli and Hamas leaders. It comes in time for Netanyahu’s visit to Washington on Tuesday when he met Trump in the Oval Office.
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U.S. and Israel Reject ICC Jurisdiction
According to the executive order, the Trump administration warns that such investigations of the ICC “set a dangerous precedent” in exposing U.S. military personnel to a potentially viable prosecution. All along, Trump has asserted that the ICC has “no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority” over the United States since the U.S. and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty that formed the ICC.
“ICC was designed as a court of last resort,” the administration said in a fact sheet accompanying the order. “That the United States and Israel have strong judicial systems makes them submit to the jurisdiction of ICC.”
Congressional Attempts to Block ICC Sanctions
Earlier this year, U.S. House passed a bill to sanction the ICC, but was blocked by Democrats in the Senate. Now, under the executive order, the administration attempts to bring forth those same sanctions through the president’s authority.
Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the ICC does not exercise any power of enforcement under its own authority. In theory, many states hold that under the Rome Statute the signatory nations must fulfill the warrants of arrest that are issued, but many others also tend to abide by the theory which is rooted in customary international law that a head of state sitting in the country enjoys immunity from foreign prosecution.
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Prateeksha Thakur
