Trump Sanctions ICC For ‘Illegitimate’ Israel, US Probes

President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday, calling the court’s actions against the United States and Israel “illegitimate and baseless.” The White House announced that Trump had signed an executive order accusing the ICC of overstepping its authority by issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Trump had met earlier that week.

The sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans targeting ICC officials, employees, their families, and anyone associated with the court’s investigations. Specific names of those affected were not immediately released, but previous sanctions had focused on the ICC’s prosecutor. Trump’s executive order condemned the court for its investigations into potential war crimes committed by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan and Israeli forces in Gaza.

Neither the U.S. nor Israel are members of the ICC. While there was no immediate response from the court itself, the Netherlands, where the ICC is based, expressed regret over the sanctions. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp emphasized the importance of the court’s work in combating impunity.

The sanctions followed Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, during which Trump outlined a plan that included U.S. control of Gaza and the relocation of Palestinians to other countries in the Middle East. Critics, including the UN and legal experts, argued that such a plan would violate international law, as forced displacement is a crime under the Rome Statute, which governs the ICC.

The ICC had previously issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, charging them with war crimes and crimes against humanity for their actions during the Gaza conflict. Netanyahu has accused the court of anti-Semitism.

In 2020, during his first term, Trump imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on ICC officials, including Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, in response to her investigation into alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. Although the sanctions did not directly mention Israel, they were partly a reaction to the ICC’s probe into the Palestinian territories. President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions in 2021, but ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan later dropped the U.S. from the Afghanistan investigation.

Biden also condemned the ICC’s November arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Although a bill to sanction the ICC passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month, Senate Democrats blocked it, arguing it could backfire on U.S. allies and firms. Democrats have also expressed criticism over the sanctions imposed on Netanyahu.