RAED JARRAR, @raedjarrar
Jarrar is advocacy director at DAWN, which just released a statement: “International Criminal Court: Investigate Biden, Blinken and Austin for Aiding and Abetting Israeli Crimes in Gaza,” announcing the group’s 172-page legal filings with the ICC which were “prepared with the support of ICC-registered lawyers and other war crimes experts, the submission details a pattern of deliberate and purposeful decisions by these officials to provide military, political, and public support to facilitate Israeli crimes in Gaza; this support included at least $17.9 billion of weapons transfers, intelligence sharing, targeting assistance, diplomatic protection, and official endorsement of Israeli crimes, despite knowledge of how such support had and would substantially enable grave abuses.”
“Not only did Biden, Blinken and Secretary Austin ignore and justify the overwhelming evidence of Israel’s grotesque and deliberate crimes, overruling their own staff recommendations to halt weapons transfers to Israel, they doubled down by providing Israel with unconditional military and political support to ensure it could carry out its atrocities,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN. “They provided Israel with not only essential military support but equally essential political support by vetoing multiple ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council to ensure Israel could continue its crimes.”
The group adds: “On February 6, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order for sanctions against ICC officials to punish them for their investigation of Israeli officials and on February 13, the Treasury Department sanctioned ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan under this order. This order could subject President Trump to individual criminal liability for obstruction of justice under Article 70 of the Rome Statute. Trump has also proposed a plan to forcibly displace all Palestinians from Gaza and to take over the territory. Such a plan, if implemented, would also subject President Trump to individual liability for war crimes and the crime of aggression under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.”
“Trump isn’t just obstructing justice; he’s trying to burn down the courthouse to prevent anyone from holding Israeli criminals accountable,” said Jarrar. “His plan to forcibly displace all Palestinians from Gaza should also merit ICC investigation — not just for aiding and abetting Israeli crimes but for ordering forcible transfer, a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute.”