President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court, accusing the body of improperly targeting the United States and Israel.
The order includes both financial sanctions and visa restrictions against unspecified ICC officials and their family members found to have assisted in investigations of U.S. citizens or allies. NBC News previously reported on the contents of the order in a fact sheet it obtained.
Last November, the ICC sparked bipartisan backlash in Washington by issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and several Hamas leaders simultaneously. The Trump administration order claims this created a “shameful moral equivalency.”
The court said there was reason to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeting civilians in Israel’s campaign in Gaza — charges Israeli officials dismissed as false and antisemitic.
A spokesperson for the court condemned Trump’s order “seeking to impose sanctions on its officials and harm its independent and impartial judicial work.”
“The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all Situations before it,” the spokesperson said. “We call on our 125 States Parties, civil society and all nations of the world to stand united for justice and fundamental human rights.”
The signing of the executive order Thursday appeared timed to Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, which included an Oval Office meeting Tuesday.
“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,” said the text of the executive order.
In his first term, Trump argued that the ICC has “no jurisdiction, no legitimacy and no authority” in the U.S., and neither the U.S. nor Israel are parties to the so-called Rome Statute, which established the court.
“The ICC was designed to be a court of last resort,” the fact sheet on the executive order reads. “Both the United States and Israel maintain robust judiciary systems and should never be subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC.”
Earlier this year, the House passed a bill to sanction the ICC that was later blocked by Democrats in the Senate.
Neither Israel nor the U.S. recognizes the jurisdiction of the ICC, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and has no police to enforce its warrants. Under the Rome Statute that created it, signatories are obliged to carry out arrest warrants, no matter the rank of the accused. But most governments also abide by the international legal principle that heads of state have legal immunity from other courts.
