The State Department has imposed sanctions on three Palestinian human rights organizations for supporting the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s Israel probe.
On Thursday, al-Haq, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the al-Mezan Center for Human Rights were added to the Department of the Treasury’s “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.”
In November 2023, the three groups joined the ICC in a lawsuit asking the prosecutor to investigate Israel for war crimes. They also called on the body to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, which it did the following year.
“This administration has been clear: the United States and Israel are not party to the Rome Statute and are therefore not subject to the ICC’s authority,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the sanctions were announced. “We oppose the ICC’s politicized agenda, overreach, and disregard for the sovereignty of the United States and that of our allies. The ongoing actions of the ICC set a dangerous precedent for all nations and we will actively oppose actions that threaten our national interests and infringe on the sovereignty of the United States and our allies, including Israel.”
The three organizations put out a joint statement condemning the sanctions.
“This attempt at silencing Palestinian voices is the latest in a relentless, decades-long campaign by Israel and its allies to erase the Palestinian people and systematically deny their collective right to self-determination and return, carried out under the cover of international impunity. Israel has bombed and destroyed the buildings hosting our organisations in Gaza, killed our colleagues and their families, carried out patterns of attacks to destroy and silence Palestinian journalists who document and report on Israel’s destruction of Gaza,” it reads.
“ICC staff and judges, UN Special Rapporteurs, and Palestinian human rights defenders have been sanctioned by the US, while Israel prevents their entry to the OPT, as it prevents access to media and the UN Commission of Inquiry,” the statement continues. “Now, Palestinian human rights organisations present on the ground documenting the evidence of Israel’s genocide are being systematically crippled and silenced by Israel’s allies.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) also put out a statement condemning the move, saying it “cements the United States government’s complicity in Israel’s crimes.”
“By targeting civil society, human rights organizations, and international mechanisms, the administration is attempting to undermine the infrastructure of support for the most vulnerable communities; this dangerous, authoritarian sequence should alarm us all,” said CCR.
“These organizations carry out vital and courageous work, meticulously documenting human rights violations under the most horrifying conditions,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns. “They have steadfastly continued to do so in the face of war, genocide, and the oppressive reality of Israel’s apartheid regime, as well as malicious attempts to discredit their findings and cripple their funding with spurious terrorism accusations.”
Since taking power, the Trump administration has consistently targeted individuals connected to the ICC and other international bodies pushing for Israel to be held accountable for its war on Gaza.
In February, it imposed sanctions on chief prosecutor Karim Khan and other members of the ICC. In July, the White House sanctioned UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese over her support for the ICC’s probe.
Last week, Rubio revoked the visas of Palestinian officials ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting next month, where multiple countries are expected to endorse Palestinian statehood.
The State Department cited the support of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority for the ICC in its statement on the move.
It’s horrifying to witness how siding with Israel is destroying the entire framework of human rights and international law.
Even if the legal teams at Al Haq were defending rapists, and murderers, they shouldn’t be published more harshly than confessed IDF rapists and murderers in Israeli criminal courts. The ICC doesn’t have the death penalty, which appears to be a possible goal of the Project Dinah group.
In 2003 the secret account of the trials and convictions of 20 of the men identified in an IDF unit in a Beersheba Court were published. They had murdered a Bedouin man in the Negev and kidnapped a Bedouin girl in 1949. They took turns gang raping her at the Nirim outpost for three days. Then their commander got tired of her and ordered her to be taken to the desert, executed, and buried. Two of the ring leaders were sentenced to 15 years, the others were sentenced to four years or less.
‘I Saw Fit to Remove Her From the World’
Newly revealed documents obtained by Haaretz tell the long-hidden story of what Ben-Gurion described as a ‘horrific atrocity’: In August 1949 an IDF unit caught a Bedouin girl, held her captive in a Negev outpost, gang-raped her, executed her at the order of the platoon commander and buried her in a shallow grave in the desert. Twenty soldiers who took part in the episode, including the platoon commander, were court-martialed and sent to prison.
Continuation of ‘I Saw Fit to Remove Her From the World’ – Haaretz Com