Trump, Congress looking to put suffocating sanctions on ‘Kangaroo’ ICC court over Netanyahu arrest warrant

JERUSALEM — The scandal-plagued International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish state's former defense minister puts the tribunal in the crosshairs of America's powerful sanctions regime. It was decided that

Last week, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Job Galant for their war plans to eradicate Hamas terrorism in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas massacred approximately 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans, in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israeli news outlet KAN said the Trump administration plans to begin sanctions against the ICC judges who issued the warrants, including the court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.

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Britain's Chief Prosecutor Khan is currently the subject of an investigation based on the following charges: committed sexual misconductAccording to reports, he vigorously denied this, saying there was “no truth to any suggestion” of such action.

Avi Bell, a law professor at the University of San Diego and Bar-Ilan University in Israel and founding director of the Israeli Law and Freedom Forum's annual program on law and democracy, told FOX News Digital, “A few years ago, the ICC He made the following threats.'' The fact that the ICC did not have jurisdiction to charge U.S. soldiers with crimes in Afghanistan did not stop the ICC for a moment, only for President Trump to impose sanctions on the ICC. . The persuasion that forced the ICC (during his first term) to comply with the law and lift sanctions against the ICC will not work. ”

Mike Walz, President Trump's nominee for National Security Adviser, announced on X that “we can expect a strong response from the ICC and the United Nations against anti-Semitic bias in January.''

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.S.C.), one of President Trump's key Senate partners, upped the ante in a recent Fox News interview, saying, “The ICC does not support any of our allies in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, or France. If you try to help, we will punish you.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, deputy director of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, said democracies could face persecution from the judicial activities of the world's top war crimes tribunal, based in The Hague, Netherlands. I was warned that it was sexual.

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Karim Khan is the ICC's chief prosecutor. (Getty Images/File)

“The warrant from the kangaroo court is a mockery of justice and a victory for Iran and its terrorist minions,” he told Fox News Digital. “Israeli leaders are guilty of defending their people against genocidal terrorists. “France and the Netherlands were the first to confirm this.'' They arrested Prime Minister Netanyahu and the list could extend to 124 countries, so democracies beware, you could be next. ”

The Clinton and George W. Bush administrations branded the ICC a flawed justice system for Americans and refused to join the international body.

“While the arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant are legally a joke, they are a very serious matter,” Bell said. “Under Karim Khan's predecessor as ICC prosecutor, the ICC was simply incompetent. Khan ushered in an era of political buffoonery in which the court devoted much of its political office to political positions. With the new indictment, the court will be in a great position to represent “terrorists and the world's worst criminals.” ”

When asked to comment on Bell's criticism, ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah told Fox News Digital: “We do not comment on such declarations.”

Israel has opened Kisfim to the delivery of humanitarian aid trucks. This assistance includes the delivery of food, water, medicine, and shelter equipment to south-central Gaza. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)

The legal scholar said, “The ICC will only stop if it has to pay a heavy price. Countries should withdraw from the Rome Statute and stop paying dues. Countries should withdraw from the ICC. “It should be recommended.” And as long as the ICC continues to issue warrants against persons over which it has no jurisdiction on trumped-up charges, ICC officials should be held criminally accountable. Sanctions for attempted kidnapping and support for terrorism. ”

The ICC, which began operating in 2002, bases its powers on the signatories of the Rome Statute. The Rome Statute outlines four major international crimes that the court will prosecute: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression, all of which are “not subject to a statute of limitations” but It is limited to crimes that occurred after it took effect.

Asked whether anti-Semitic sentiments were driving the ICC warrant, Bell said: “I don't get the impression that the warrant is the result of personal anti-Semitism on the part of the ICC judges. The ICC has always been a political weak point. , previously African countries, and now preying on them.” Widespread anti-Semitism within the Jewish state, especially among progressives, may be making Israel politically weaker and more vulnerable, which the ICC's efforts seek to do. Prosecuting Israelis when they are legally innocent is actually a sign of systemic moral depravity far deeper than simple bigotry. ”

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Hamas terrorists participate in military parade. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File)

Gabriel Noronha, former U.S. Department of State Counsel for Iran and current research fellow at the U.S. National Security Institute for Jewish Studies, told Fox News Digital that the ICC could face penalties in cases against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. He said he knew something. , but the ICC “decided to ignore diplomacy and face US influence.”

He added that the U.S. sanctions would prevent affected ICC officials from securing visas to enter the United States and would result in their property and bank accounts in the United States being frozen.

“The sanctions are quite wide-ranging and could include family members,” Noronha said.

Mr. Noronha echoed Mr. Graham's remarks. He said the second Trump administration could pursue a “diplomatic strategy that penalizes countries that cooperate with these specific ICC warrants.”

Some European countries have already condemned the ICC's decision. “The ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant is completely incomprehensible,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said of However, this decision is detrimental to the court.” Reliability. ”

He added: “It is absurd to create an equivalence between a member of a democratically elected government and the leader of a terrorist organization.”

The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for deceased Hamas terrorist leader Mohammad Deif.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has flatly rejected the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant against Israeli leaders.

“The ICC's unfortunate ruling undermines the authority of other cases by equating elected representatives of democratic states with leaders of Islamist terrorist organizations,” he wrote to X.

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Hungarian Conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the decision to issue a warrant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for waging war in Gaza undermined international law and escalated tensions, saying the ICC was “intervening in an ongoing conflict for political purposes.” “I'm doing it,” he accused.

The United States and the European Union have classified Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization.

Peter Aitken of The Associated Press and FOX News contributed to this article.