Defund ICC’s ‘kangaroo court’ as it wages anti-Israel lawfare

Theไ Netherlands-based International Criminal Court on Monday exposed itself as a deeply antisemitic and politicized institution that ignores facts and jurisdiction to conduct lawfare against democracies that defend themselves against terrorism.

American policy should now turn toward pressuring allies to defund this kangaroo court and imp🐠osing financial sanctions to grind its op🌳erations to a halt.

The ICC’s indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjaminꦉ Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes has nothing to do with law and everything ไto do with lawfare – that is, the use of legal systems to damage or delegitimize an adversary.

In this case, detractors of the United States and Isra꧑el are using the ICC to attack 🌼a free democracy exercising its inherent right to self-defense in the face of a brutal terrorist enemy.

In effect, the ICC has joined an Iran-led axis as a partner in a multi-front war to destroy the one Je꧃wish state – all und﷽er cover of international law.

In a perverse game of public relations, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan packaged the Israeli indictments alongside charges against the terrorist leaders of Hamas – an attempt to look𝄹 even-handed while creating a 🎐false moral equivalency between bloodthirsty terrorist organizations and democratic governments.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, of course, could care less about an ICC indictment. He lives in a hole in the ground surrounded by Israeli hostages and rightly views an ICC indictment of Israeꦐlis as another ticket to his survival.

The ICC indictments against Netanyahu and Gallant falsely claim that Israel has i💝ntentionally inflicted harm on civilians in Gaza.

The facts not only refute such accusations but demonstrate an historic Israeli effort to minimize civilian casualties — with a civilian casualty ratio so low as to be uꦫnheard of in modern urban warfare — alongside ongoing Israeli e🌊fforts to flood Gaza with humanitarian aid.

The indictments are not only baseless, using Hamas allies as sources, but also clearly 𓂃fall o🧜utside the ICC’s jurisdiction.

Israel is not a member of the ICC and, as a democracy, it has a robu🔯st mechanism for self-investigatio🔥n and accountability.

The Rom꧒e Statute, the treaty that governs the ICC, makes clear these indictments are wholly ille♊gitimate.

Today the target is Israel. Tomorrow, however, it might be the Un🐷ited States. Like Israel, the US is not a member of the ICC and is a democracy w💖ith a respected system for self-accountability.

The threat to the United States from the ICC isn’t hypothetical. Washington faces an active ICC investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

Defending Israel from the ICC’s lawfare now will help protect American soldiers and government offiಞcials down the road.

The dou❀ble standard and political nature of the ICC’s action against Israel becomes apparent by its notable inaction against the world’s most evil regimes.

In more than 20 years, this so-called court has taken no action agai🌱nst some of the greatest perpetrators of crimes against humanity on the planet — from Xi Jinping’s genocide in Xinjiang, to Ali Khamenei’s brut൲alization of the Iranian people and sponsorship of terrorism throughout the world, to Bashar al-Assad’s mass-murder of the Syrian people.

ꦯBut when the world’s only Jewish state, taking utmost care to mitigate civilian casualties, fights back against Nazi-like terrorists that slaughtered Jewish families and took others hostage, the democracy of Israel becomes the ICC’s primary concern and target.

Tragically, i🍰t took only 79 years for Europe to become a place where Jews are put 🔯on trial for fighting Nazis.

That Japan and Germany are the top donors to the institution perpetrating this abomination should �✅�be jarring.

That the U💯nited Kingdom and France are th♉e next two top donors should be nauseating.

No democ༺racy can call itself an ally of the United States and fund antisemitic lawfare against Isღrael that invites future lawfare against America, too.

Washin𝄹gton must act decisively by threatening financial sanctions against any bank that processes a transaction for or on behalf of the ICC🌼. Its officials should face asset freezes and visa denials.

And the ICC’s leading donors ꦕmust be put to a choice: stand with democracy and the rule of law or stand with terrorist sympathize♛rs using lawfare to undermine both.

🧜The ICC should not be dismissed as symbolic ༒or a joke.

The institution is 🌠misusing l💞aw as a weapon of war, and the United States should act accordingly.

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is a former National Security Council official and senior US Senate aide.