The Biden administration has lifted sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko. Former president Donald Trump imposed the sanctions via Executive Order in June 2020, after it was announced that the court would investigate potential U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. The ICC has also launched a probe into whether Israel committed war crimes in Palestine.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the move on April 2, but made it clear that the Biden administration continues to oppose the ICC investigating the United States and Israel. “We continue to disagree strongly with the ICC’s actions relating to the Afghanistan and Palestinian situations,” read his press statement. “We maintain our longstanding objection to the Court’s efforts to assert jurisdiction over personnel of non-States Parties such as the United States and Israel. We believe, however, that our concerns about these cases would be better addressed through engagement with all stakeholders in the ICC process rather than through the imposition of sanctions.”
The ICC’s President of the Assembly of State Parties Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi welcomed the news in a statement. “I trust this decision signals the start of a new phase of our common undertaking to fight against impunity for such crimes,” it reads. “The Assembly and its subsidiary bodies have always welcomed the participation of the United States, and indeed of all States, in their work as well as encouraged a fruitful cooperation with the Court´s activities.”
The United States is not a member country of the ICC.
Israel and the ICC
Shortly after Trump imposed sanctions on the ICC, Axios’ Barak Ravid reported that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had flown to Israel in order to coordinate the move with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli media is reporting that Netanyahu will hold a meeting tomorrow to determine whether Israel will participate in the investigation or boycott it. The government has until Friday to respond to an ICC letter it got about the probe.
While the Biden administration’s move was welcomed by human rights groups, it was condemned by a number of pro-Israel organizations. “We are disappointed the administration is revoking sanctions on the ICC officials who are pursuing a baseless and discriminatory attack on the Jewish state,” read a tweet from AIPAC’s Twitter account. “We agree with the administration’s position that the Court doesn’t have jurisdiction over the U.S. and Israel.”
Earlier this year, Netanyahu encouraged Biden to leave the sanctions in place. “In my phone call with President Biden, we talked about our moral obligation to protect our troops against those who are trying to defame their morality with false claims,” he said during a service for Israeli soldiers in February.
Meanwhile:
Israel watches on as U.S. and Iran look to revive nuclear deal in Vienna – Israel News – Haaretz.com
“Israel Watches on as U.S. and Iran Look to Revive Nuclear Deal in Vienna” Haaretz, April 4/21, by Alon Pinkas
EXCERPT:
“As the corruption trial of Benjamin Netanyahu begins in earnest and as efforts to form a new government continue, talks between Washington and Tehran are actually the biggest show in town.”
Also:
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2021/4/3/growing-support-for-palestinians-in-congress-says-rashida-tlaib
“‘Growing support for Palestinians in Congress’ says Rashida Tlaib”
The New Arab, April 3/21
“A growing number of US lawmakers are showing support for Palestinians and condemning the Israeli occupation in previously unheard-of terms, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said this week.
“In a webinar hosted by American Muslims for Palestine and the Jewish anti-occupation IfNotNow Movement, Tlaib pointed to a congressional letter she recently spearheaded alongside Congressman Mark Pocan.
“Ten other lawmakers signed the letter, which called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to revise Washington’s approach towards Israel and support ‘the human rights and dignity of the Palestinian people’.
“Notably, the letter condemned Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip as ‘settler colonialism’.
“‘Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable to have 12 members of Congress refer to Israeli occupation as colonialism, so I have no doubt that the needle on Palestinian human rights is moving,’ Tlaib told the webinar.
“Pro-Palestine activism is making a ‘huge difference’ in institutions of power, including in Congress, she was quoted as saying by Haaretz.
“Tlaib went on to condemn Israel’s refusal to vaccinate the occupied Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, also referenced in this month’s letter to the secretary of state.
“‘We all need to raise awareness of how the systems that oppress Palestinians in Israel and occupied Palestine are mirrored in the United States, where racism in our health care system means that indigenous and Black Americans die at more than twice the rate of our white counterparts,’ Tlaib said.
“Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in 1967, in a move deemed illegal by much of the international community.”
And secretary of state Antony Blinken also said recently –
US secretary of state to Foreign Minister Ashkenazi: ‘Israelis and Palestinians should enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy’…In a telephone call with Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, Blinken “emphasized the administration’s belief that Israelis and Palestinians should enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/blinken-tells-israel-palestinians-should-enjoy-same-rights-freedoms-as-you-do/
Of course it remains to be seen whether or not the Biden administration is willing to put real pressure on Israel.
I just occurred to me that Biden is elderly and therefore has no future career to worry about. The base* vile and pathologically dishonest Israel lobby can’t exactly threaten his future prospects now can they?
*contemptible, mean-spirited, or selfish lack of human decency