Today, the Trump administration announced sanctions against two International Criminal Court (ICC) officials, President Tomoko Akane of Japan and the ICC’s senior trial lawyer, Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the organization “corrupt and fatally politicized.” This follows Rubio last month setting the proverbial cat among the pigeons, declaring his intentions to “dismantle” the ICC — urging other nations to join the effort. Rubio launched the campaign, vowing to employ “all the tools at our government’s disposal” to “dismantle the ICC, brick by brick.”

Against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s escalating actions against the ICC, Rubio accused the court of “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles,” but with “the force of so-called international law.”

A warped sense of justice?

The administration’s ire against the ICC dates back to President Trump’s first term, when it targeted the ICC for seeking to investigate alleged war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Indeed, the second Trump administration has imposed a slew of sanctions against ICC officials for their attempts to investigate the U.S. and Israel — neither of which is even a member of the ICC.

But the new trigger for the White House’s intensifying punitive action against the ICC is the scandalous issue of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

In a feeble ICC attempt to feign evenhandedness, warrants were also issued against Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, Ismail Haniyeh — after their deaths — which, quite apart from the absurdity of equating the perpetrators of the October 7 massacre with those who responded to it, underscores the warped sense of justice the ICC purports to administer.

Gravely misinformed or grossly dishonest

The figure behind these measures was the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who initiated the arrest warrant requests. Khan has since been forced to leave office following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. According to some sources, the arrest warrants were motivated, at least in part, to divert attention from these allegations.

Notably, Khan is not the only chief ICC prosecutor against whom allegations of severe impropriety have been leveled.

For example, Fatou Bensouda, who prior to her appointment as chief ICC prosecutor in 2012, held top posts in the Gambian judiciary under the brutal military dictatorship that ruled Gambia from 1994 to 2017.

Bensouda claimed she had no knowledge of the human rights abuses of the regime she served. However, given her seniority and long association with the regime, this leaves one to ponder which is worse: Being oblivious of the abuses, gravely ill-informed, or grossly deceitful.

Sexual misconduct & financial shenanigans?

Likewise, Bensouda’s predecessor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the ICC’s first prosecutor from 2003 to 2012, also fell under a cloud of suspicion — both while in office and after leaving it.

Ocampo was accused of sexual misconduct in South Africa by an ICC whistleblower. Although Ocampo’s ICC cronies dismissed the charges, the whistleblower was vindictively dismissed by Ocampo himself — despite the ICC’s own internal Disciplinary Advisory Board’s call to rescind the dismissal.

Undeterred, the whistleblower appealed to the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which found resoundingly in his favor, awarding him substantial monetary compensation, casting further doubts on the ICC’s integrity.

After leaving the ICC in 2012, Ocampo became the subject of several allegations concerning his financial and professional activities. These included the abuse of his position as former ICC prosecutor, shady financial shenanigans, and severe conflicts of interest.

These allegations stemmed primarily from the far-reaching 2017 “Secrets of the Court” investigation by the European Investigative Collaborations. While the allegations did not result in judicial convictions, the ethical issues they raised tarnished his reputation and, by association, the ICC’s judicial practices.

The Israeli angle

For Israel, Rubio’s initiative is a welcome development. For it serves to undermine the legitimacy of the ICC measures against senior Israeli personnel and expose just how the hypocrisy-ridden ICC has strayed from its lofty founding principles and noble aims.

For the fallen Karim Khan and his cronies, it perhaps reflects that biblical maxim in Numbers 24:9: “Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed. And whoever curses Israel will be cursed.”

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Dr. Martin Sherman is the founder of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a member of the Habithonistim-Israel Defense & Security Forum (IDSF) research team, and a participant in the Israel Victory Project.

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Rubio Hits Back At Communist-Islamist International Criminal Court Corruption