Trump slaps sanctions on ICC over ‘illegitimate and baseless’ Netanyahu arrest warrant

President Trump sanctioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) Thursday over the tribunal’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

Trump, 78, signed sanctions into effect via executive order to target ICC officials, employees and their immediate family members with financial penalties and visa restrictions.

The move comes days after Trump met with Netanyahu, 75, in the White House during which he revealed a desire to take over the Gaza Strip and relocate the roughly 2 million Palestinians who live there.

Senate Democrats had blocked a bill to slap similar sanctions against ICC last month after the measure had cleared the House of Representatives, prompting Trump to do it himself.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan first pushed the court for an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant in May of last year.

Khan also pursued arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar Mohammed Deif, but they have since been killed in the war.

In November, the ICC levied arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, 66, alleging that there were “reasonable grounds” to conclude the two men “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival.”

The Israelis have announced plans to appeal the arrest warrants.

Neither the US nor Israel have ratified the 1998 Rome Statute that created the tribunal and none of the two countries recognize the ICC. The treaty created the ICC, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and became effective in 2002.

Trump’s executive order slammed the ICC for “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.

“The ICC has, without a legitimate basis, asserted jurisdiction over and opened preliminary investigations concerning personnel of the United States,” his executive order continued.

“This malign conduct in turn threatens to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States government and our allies, including Israel.”

Due to the warrant, Netanyahu and Gallant are subject to arrest in any of the 124 nations that have ratified the Rome Statute, including Austria, the UK and France.

During his first administration, Trump had lodged sanctions against the ICC over its investigation into alleged US conduct in Afghanistan.

Despite briefly feuding with Netanyahu over the US strike that took out Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, Trump has seemingly patched things up with the Israeli prime minister.

“He’s done a great job and we’ve been friends for a long time,” Trump said of Netanyahu during their White House meeting. “We do a great job also, and I think we have a combination that’s very unbeatable, actually.”

Netanyahu similarly hailed Trump as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”

Earlier Thursday, Trump signed another executive order calling on the Justice Department to convene a task force that would probe “anti-Christian bias” across the federal government.