Pro-Palestine Groups Sue Trump Sanctions Against International Criminal Court Supporters

Pro-Palestine advocates in the United States have filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court, seeking to halt the enforcement of sanctions by the Donald Trump administration against groups or individuals coordinating with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), founded by the late Middle East Eye columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and the Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (Taag) stated they felt compelled to file the suit after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in an opinion piece earlier this week that the US was willing to dismantle the ICC step by step.

In the early weeks of his presidency, Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14203, authorising US officials to impose sanctions on foreign nationals for supporting ICC investigations into US and Israeli citizens for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Trump’s order makes providing services to, or receiving services from, sanctioned individuals or entities a federal offence. The Trump administration declared the ICC investigations a national emergency, arguing the court lacks jurisdiction over crimes committed by US and Israeli nationals during wartime.

Although Washington played a role in the ICC’s early development and signed the Rome Statute in 2000 under the presidency of Bill Clinton, it never submitted the statute to the Senate for ratification, amid concerns the ICC could prosecute US military personnel and officials for alleged war crimes, particularly in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.