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The International Criminal Court (ICC), as encouraged by prosecutor Karim Khan, propagated the blood libel that Israel is attacking Palestinian civilians. Khan knows or should know that Israel has not only refrained from targeting civilians, but has taken extraordinary measures to the extent of putting its own soldiers at risk to avoid harming them.

We also need to ask why South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice to prosecute Israel for genocide, another blood libel from a backward Third World country with its own long litany of human rights violations including the racist murder of Amy Biehl and the necklacing of Winnie Mandela’s political opponents. Maybe Iranian money under the table has something to do with it. A letter signed by 161 attorneys alleges that “…officials of the ANC received bribes from Iran to pay the party’s debts in exchange for agreeing to accuse Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip at the International Court of Justice.”

Karim Khan’s Alleged Indiscretions

 The ICC’s chief prosecutor is himself the center of some controversies, including sexual harassment. “According to a document seen by the Guardian, the accusations against Khan, 54, include unwanted sexual touching and ‘abuse’ over an extended period. They include an alleged incident in which he is said to have ‘pressed his tongue’ into the woman’s ear.” Khan denies the allegations, but the controversy is there. Khan’s misconduct is only alleged at this point, and the burden of proof is on his accuser, but the allegation is still a huge elephant in the room.

UK Lawyers for Israel has meanwhile filed a professional misconduct complaint against Karim Khan. “Having received no reply, UKLFI has now reported the prosecutor, Karim Khan KC, and his assistant, Andrew Cayley KC, both English barristers, to the Bar Standards Board for England and Wales (BSB). UKLFI accuses Khan and Cayley of not complying with their duty not to mislead the Court.”

US Senators and Foundation for Defense of Democracies Weigh In

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies reports that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the ICC “corrupt to its core” and a “rogue and politically motivated organization.” To this, Graham, John Thune (R-SD), and John Fetterman (D-PA) added, “Acquiescing to the Court’s jurisdiction over Israel is to agree, in theory, they have jurisdiction over the United States.” The fact that Iran and Communist China get a free pass from the ICC for their own extensive human rights violations, including genocide of Uyghur Muslims by the Chinese Communists and China’s violation of the UN Charter by menacing Taiwan, underscores the ICC’s partisan nature.

The FDD’s Clifford D. May adds, “The Corruption of the International Criminal Court (ICC),” which is highly instructive. It depicts the ICC as a menace to American sovereignty, for which there should be zero tolerance.

Regardless of the ICC’s reason for providing lawfare support to a foreign terrorist organization, with the sole exception of also filing charges against a few terrorists, President-Elect Trump is the right person to deal with this problem. Not only are Republicans and some Democrats seeking to punish the ICC, the Telegraph’s Joe Barnes reports, “Trump could sanction British lawyer leading ICC push for Netanyahu arrest.”

Should the US and Israel Outlaw the ICC?

Israeli law may enable it to classify the ICC as an unlawful association and treat it accordingly. “In accordance with the 1945 Defense (Emergency) Regulations, an unlawful association is defined as ‘any body of persons, whether incorporated or unincorporated, named or not, which, from time to time, suggests, incites or encourages its constitution or propaganda of the following unlawful acts:  …Brings hatred or contempt or incitement thereof, against the Israeli government or its ministers in their official capacity.'” The ICC has certainly done this with its false accusations against Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, thus providing aid and comfort to terrorists.

In addition, the Israeli law says, “In Israel’s fight against terror and the sources that fund it, the government has the authority to declare relevant bodies and organizations as terrorist organizations, and the Defense Minister has the authority to declare groups as unlawful associations.” Israel has already banned UNRWA for collusion with Hamas.

Another law empowers the United States to use military force against any country that honors an ICC warrant against a U.S. service member or a U.S. ally (such as Netanyahu). Senator Tom Cotton cited the American Service-Members’ Protection Act to warn, “Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it.” Israel is meanwhile well known for its ability to extradite people such as war criminal Adolf Eichmann from halfway across the world and, should the ICC actually manage to get Netanyahu into custody, it could wake up in the middle of the night to find not only Netanyahu gone but his captors in Israeli custody on charges of kidnapping. Were Israel to take the latter action, I would not say one word against it.

Israel is not the only country that could arrest and imprison anybody who acts on an ICC warrant, or even possibly issue one against, for example, the President of the United States. Anybody who so much as even thinks about conspiring to kidnap the President of the United States needs to look at the potential consequences, namely, life in prison. Jurisdiction for “18 U.S. Code § 1751 — Presidential and Presidential staff assassination, kidnapping, and assault; penalties” does not stop at our borders either. In fact, “There is extraterritorial jurisdiction over the conduct prohibited by this section.”

Legal Insurrection’s William A. Jacobson, who is an attorney, goes even further. He reminds his readers that the ICC’s current behavior is why the United States never signed onto the Rome Statute, to which Israel also is not a signatory — which means the ICC is trying to exercise jurisdiction where it has none. “The ICC needs to be gutted, treated and sanctioned the way we treat and sanction terrorist organizations” to which he adds, emphasis is mine, “And I think what you’re going to see, and what I hope you see, is the U.S. under Trump and the Senate and the House under Republicans, gutting the ICC with sanctions. …Anyone who cooperates with it being treated the way we treat somebody who gives material support to a terrorist group, criminalizing it.”

Tom Cotton adds, “The ICC is a kangaroo court and Karim Khan is a deranged fanatic. Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants.” If we note, with the exception of John Fetterman, who deserves full credit for his own denunciation of the ICC, the prevalence of Rs after the names of the senators in question, those of us who “used our heads and voted Red” a few weeks ago should feel amply vindicated in the election of Trump and a Republican Senate.

If Karim Khan and his associates think William Jacobson, Lindsey Graham, John Thune, John Fetterman, Tom Cotton, Mike Waltz, Jim Risch, and Donald Trump are blowing smoke, the Secretary of State — who is likely to be Marco Rubio — has the power to designate an entity as a foreign terrorist organization which criminalizes all forms of material support for the entity in question. As far as I know, no vote by Congress is necessary, which means we can look forward, come January 20, 2025, to the image of the well-deserved heel of Uncle Sam’s boot in the ICC’s collective face.

Civis Americanus is the pen name of an American Thinker contributor who remembers the lessons of history, and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way.

Image: Oseveno