The US State Department has imposed sanctions on three Palestinian human rights groups that asked the International Criminal Court to analyze and arrest Israeli leaders over accusations of war crimes in Gaza.
Late final 12 months the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a now deceased senior Hamas official.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated Thursday the US will sanction the three NGOs – Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan), and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) – for participating in what he known as the ICC’s “illegitimate targeting of Israel.”
The organizations “have directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent,” Rubio stated in a press release posted to the US Treasury Department’s web site.
The US sanctions come days after the world’s leading genocide scholars stated Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the authorized definition of genocide. Israel rejected the accusation, saying it’s primarily based on a “campaign of lies” by Hamas. It has beforehand rejected different accusations it’s finishing up genocide or war crimes.
Al Haq, Al Mezan and PCHR slammed the current US sanctions as “immoral, illegal and undemocratic” in a joint assertion posted to X.
In November 2023, the three groups filed a lawsuit with the ICC asking the prosecutor to analyze Israel for airstrikes on densely populated areas in Gaza, the siege of the territory, the compelled displacement of its inhabitants, using poisonous gasoline and the denial of requirements, together with meals and water.
The organizations additionally urged the ICC to situation arrest warrants for the Israeli leaders concerned in actions they stated amounted to “war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide.”
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former protection chief Yoav Gallant for war crimes, together with “starvation as a method of warfare” and crimes in opposition to humanity.
The court additionally issued a warrant for Hamas official Mohammed Deif, who Israel stated was one of many masterminds of the October 7 attack. Israel stated Deif was killed in an airstrike final 12 months.
President Donald Trump’s administration has waged a marketing campaign to punish organizations concerned within the ICC’s efforts to analyze Israel’s conduct within the war in Gaza. The White House has been extremely vital of the Netherlands-based court, which investigates and prosecutes people charged with essentially the most egregious worldwide crimes, below a treaty known as the Rome Statute, to which the US isn’t get together.
The US has imposed sanctions on 9 folks who work for the ICC, together with chief prosecutor Karim Khan. It has additionally instituted a coverage of denying and revoking visas for members of the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization partly due to their “lawfare” campaigns on the ICC and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Rubio stated Thursday the US “will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to protect our troops, our sovereignty, and our allies from the ICC’s disregard for sovereignty, and to punish entities that are complicit in its overreach.”
Al Haq, Al Mezan Center, and PCHR condemned the “draconian” sanctions of their joint assertion, which was posted to every of their X accounts.
“Only states with complete disregard to international law and our shared humanity can take such heinous measures against human rights orgs working to end a genocide,” the organizations stated.
“As the world moves to impose sanctions and arms embargoes on Israel; its ally, the US is working to destroy Palestinian institutions working tirelessly for accountability for the victims of Israel’s mass atrocity crimes,” the assertion went on.
Israel, just like the United States, isn’t a member of the ICC and has challenged the court’s jurisdiction over its actions within the battle – a problem the court rejected on Thursday.
The ICC claims jurisdiction over territories Israel occupies, together with Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, following the Palestinian management’s formal settlement to be certain by the court’s founding ideas in 2015.
Amnesty International known as the US resolution to impose sanctions a “deeply troubling and shameful assault on human rights and the global pursuit of justice.”
“These organizations carry out vital and courageous work, meticulously documenting human rights violations under the most horrifying conditions,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns stated in a statement.
“This decision also starkly exposes the Trump administration’s deliberate efforts to dismantle the very foundation of international justice and shield Israel from accountability for its crimes,” Guevara-Rosas stated.