Donald Trump's controversial plan for Gaza, which involves the potential displacement of Palestinian residents, raises concerns about potential ICC prosecution of US officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Since then, Trump 's plan has shifted daily. If the U.S. takes steps to force the displacement of the over 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza , U.S. officials could face arrest and prosecution in the International Criminal Court ( ICC ), a tribunal that prosecutes individuals under rules of international law. Despite the U.S.
not being one of the 125 states that recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, the court can issue warrants for Americans whose actions in Gaza and the West Bank violate international law, if an ICC prosecutor's investigation finds reasonable grounds to believe that specific individuals perpetrated crimes, according to Tom Dannenbaum, an associate professor of international law at Tufts University's Fletcher School. However, 'Americans are pretty buffered from ever appearing before the ICC,' Kim Scheppele, an international affairs professor at Princeton University who focuses on international law, told ABC News.The ICC has jurisdiction over the Palestinian Territories. In 2015, the court's jurisdiction was extended to include Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with a pretrial chamber affirming the ratification in 2021. This jurisdiction is particularly relevant in the context of the ICC's recent actions against Israeli officials. The arrest warrant issued by the court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in May 2024, referred to by Netanyahu as 'absurd' and a 'hit job', cited alleged crimes against humanity, including the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, willfully causing great suffering, and other 'inhumane acts'.When there is suspicion of a criminal act, the ICC prosecutor investigates to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe specific crimes were committed. If that threshold is met, then the prosecutor asks for an arrest warrant for those individuals. To obtain a conviction, the ICC prosecutor's office needs to prove in court that a crime occurred beyond a reasonable doubt, according to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. If a warrant is issued for an individual, the 125 states that recognize the court -- including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom -- would have an obligation to arrest that person. In the context of the Palestinian Territories, the nationality of the suspected perpetrator of a crime does not exclude them from arrest or prosecution, even in cases where the perpetrator's state does not recognize the court, due to its jurisdiction over the territories. Although the Trump administration has since walked back some of its rhetoric, if any U.S. official moves to 'take over' Gaza and expel Palestinians, as Trump said, the ICC prosecutor could take action to secure a warrant against even top government officials, according to Dannenbaum. Dannenbaum noted that Trump's statements -- if carried out literally -- could constitute two particular crimes, as seen by the ICC. Trump's statements suggest that two crimes could be committed in this action, according to Dannenbaum. 'Often the language that's used around this is the term ethnic cleansing, but the specific legal manifestation of that is possible transfer or forcible deportation, and where it's specifically discriminatory -- grounded in nationality or ethnicity, for example -- then that would be also the crime against humanity of persecution,' Dannenbaum said.For example, an environment in which Palestinians are denied access to humanitarian essentials would qualify for possible deportation or transfer, and that could implicate either the crime against humanity of possible deportation or the war crime of possible deportation, or both,' Dannenbaum said. The ICC itself does not have a body tasked with making arrests or enforcing warrants, but it depends on member states and requires their cooperation for almost everything, including accessing crime scenes, engaging with witnesses, arrests, transfers, and enforcement of sentences. 'The court is ultimately only as strong as the state parties to that court are willing to make it -- are willing to guarantee -- and has been clearly its biggest challenge in the now more than 20 years of its existence,' Dannenbaum said. The International Court of Justice relies on member states for enforcement of decisions. While the ICC prosecutes individuals, the International Court of Justice is a separate court that adjudicates disputes between nations and issues decisions on matters under international law
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT ICC GAZA PALESTINE US OFFICIALS TRUMP WAR CRIMES CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY ETHNIC CLEANSING INTERNATIONAL LAW JURISDICTION
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