The United States remains Israel’s best ally in escaping the genocide committed in Gaza. Thus, the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, sanctioned this Thursday two judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Gocha Lordkipanidze, of Georgia; and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia under Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14203, on “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.”
“These individuals directly participated in the ICC’s efforts to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute Israeli citizens without Israel’s consent, including the majority vote in favor of the ICC’s decision against Israel’s appeal on December 15,” the US State Department says.
According to the Trump administration, “the ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions against Israel, setting a dangerous precedent for all nations. We will not tolerate abuses of power by the ICC that violate U.S. and Israeli sovereignty and unjustly subject U.S. and Israeli citizens to its jurisdiction.”
The judgment of the International Criminal Court on December 15 marks the closure of one of the main legal avenues opened by Israel to stop or delay the progress of the investigation into Palestine, by rejecting its latest appeal and confirming that the Court maintains its jurisdiction over the events that occurred after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
“Our message to the Court has been clear,” says the US State Department: “The United States and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute and therefore reject the jurisdiction of the ICC. We will continue to respond with meaningful and tangible consequences to the legal warfare and overreach of the ICC.”
The United Nations rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, as well as six judges and three prosecutors of the International Criminal Court were also subject to sanctions by Washington, due to their work in the application of international law against crimes committed in Palestine or Afghanistan.
SO. Likewise, the Palestinian organizations Al Haq, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PHRC) have been surviving for three months without salaries or funds, due to sanctions imposed by the Trump administration last September. This means, among other things, that they cannot access their bank accounts anywhere, that they have no money and that some international entities that collaborated with them have stopped doing so.
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