THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court slammed sanctions Friday slapped by US President Donald Trump over its probes targeting America and Israel and pledged to press on with its aim to fight for “justice and hope” around the world.
The United Nations and the European Union also urged Trump on Friday to reverse the decision ordering asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court’s investigations.
The sanctions could impact the court’s technical and IT operations, including evidence gathering. There are fears victims of alleged atrocities may hesitate to come forward.
Trump signed an executive order Thursday saying the court in The Hague had “abused its power” by issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held talks with the US president on Tuesday.
The ICC said the move sought to “harm its independent and impartial judicial work.”
“The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” it said.
The United Nations said it deeply regretted Trump’s decision and urged him to reverse the move.
“The court should be fully able to undertake its independent work — where a state is unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution,” UN human rights office OHCHR spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told AFP in an email.
“The rule of law remains essential to our collective peace and security. Seeking accountability globally makes the world a safer place for everyone.”
Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the EU’s 27 member states, wrote on X that the move “undermines the international criminal justice system.”
The European Commission separately expressed “regret,” stressing the ICC’s “key importance in upholding international criminal justice and the fight against impunity.”
The executive order risks “affecting ongoing investigations and proceedings, including as regards Ukraine, impacting years of efforts to ensure accountability around the world,” said a commission spokesman.
The names of the individuals affected by the sanctions were not immediately released, but previous US sanctions under Trump had targeted the court’s prosecutor.
Trump’s order said the tribunal had engaged in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel,” referring to ICC probes into alleged war crimes by US service members in Afghanistan and Israeli troops in Gaza.
Israel’s foreign minister applauded Trump, calling the court’s actions against Israel illegitimate.
“I strongly commend @POTUS President Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the so-called ‘international criminal court’,” Gideon Saar wrote on X, adding that the ICC’s actions were “immoral and have no legal basis.”
Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court.
Following a request by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, judges issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif — whom Israel says is dead.
The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare during the Gaza war, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
Netanyahu has accused the court of anti-Semitism.
During his first term, Trump imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the ICC’s then prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and other senior officials and staff in 2020.
His administration made the move after Gambian-born Bensouda launched an investigation into allegations of war crimes against US soldiers in Afghanistan.
While his order at the time did not name Israel, Trump administration officials said they were also angered by Bensouda’s opening of a probe into the situation in the Palestinian territories in 2019.
President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions soon after taking office in 2021.
Prosecutor Khan later effectively dropped the US from the Afghan investigation and focused on the Taliban instead.
Biden strongly condemned the “outrageous” warrant against Netanyahu in November.
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Trump condemned for ICC sanctions over Israel, US probes
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Trump condemned for ICC sanctions over Israel, US probes
- The sanctions could impact the court’s technical and IT operations, including evidence gathering
- There are fears victims of alleged atrocities may hesitate to come forward
Rogue Catholic traditionalists risk showdown with Vatican
- Switzerland-based Society of Saint Pius X to go ahead with the bishop ordinations on July 1
- Ordaining bishops without the Vatican’s approval would mean excommunication
PARIS: A Catholic community wedded to tradition is preparing to defy Pope Leo XIV by ordaining new bishops without his approval, raising the specter of a new schism within the Church.
It reignites a long-standing power struggle between Rome and traditionalists who are angered by threats to old-age rites, such as the use of Latin in church.
The Switzerland-based Society of Saint Pius X, which has about 600,000 followers worldwide, said this week it would go ahead with the ordinations on July 1, after a diplomatic outreach came to nothing.
The society (SSPX) said it had asked for an audience with the US pontiff, who was elected in May, but received an unsatisfactory response.
Ordaining bishops without the Vatican’s approval would mean excommunication — being expelled outright from the Catholic Church.
It would not be the first time: the society was founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, but clashed with Rome almost immediately.
It rejected the reforms introduced under the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which sought to bring the Church into the modern era, including by restricting the Tridentine mass.
SSPX refused to stop performing the mass, which is conducted in Latin by a priest who keeps his back to the congregation, in a ceremony marked by incense and Gregorian chants.
By 1975, the Vatican had stripped the society’s ministers of all authority.
Undeterred, Lefebvre illicitly ordained four bishops in 1988, resulting in immediate excommunication.
‘Force this through’
By threatening to ordain more bishops, the society risks undoing efforts to improve relations with the Vatican under recent popes.
Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication in 2009 and his successor Francis said SSPX priests can celebrate marriages in traditionalist churches under some circumstances.
But since Leo was elected last year, “they haven’t stopped criticizing the pope,” Martin Dumont, head of the Institute for Research on the Study of Religions at the Sorbonne University, said.
And any fresh attempt to ordain new bishops would be seen by Rome as a direct threat to the unity of the Church.
“The act they are about to commit is schismatic in spirit,” Dumont said.
The society’s decision to forge ahead with ordaining its own bishops has not come as a surprise.
“They are trying to force this through, but it’s been in the works for several years now,” Dumont said.
SSPX, which has 720 priests but now only two bishops, claims its survival is at stake.
It needs more bishops because it has around 600,000 followers worldwide and the number is “growing in a number of countries,” notably France, Germany and the United States, Dumont said.
‘Bridge the gap’
Leo is keen to preserve Church unity and has made concessions toward traditionalists, notably by authorizing use of the Tridentine mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, head of the Vatican’s department for doctrinal matters, has offered to meet with the society in Rome on February 12, it said.
“Rome has always extended a hand, saying: ‘Come back, we are ready to welcome you,’” Dumont said.
A canon lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity said one solution could be to “find bishops to bridge the gap between the two sides.”
But he warned the bishop question masked “a much deeper problem,” namely “the fact that they do not recognize the Second Vatican Council.”
Pushing through with the ordination of new bishops means one thing only, the lawyer said.
“Canon law is very clear: if bishops ordain other bishops without a papal mandate, they are automatically excommunicated,” he said.
It reignites a long-standing power struggle between Rome and traditionalists who are angered by threats to old-age rites, such as the use of Latin in church.
The Switzerland-based Society of Saint Pius X, which has about 600,000 followers worldwide, said this week it would go ahead with the ordinations on July 1, after a diplomatic outreach came to nothing.
The society (SSPX) said it had asked for an audience with the US pontiff, who was elected in May, but received an unsatisfactory response.
Ordaining bishops without the Vatican’s approval would mean excommunication — being expelled outright from the Catholic Church.
It would not be the first time: the society was founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, but clashed with Rome almost immediately.
It rejected the reforms introduced under the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which sought to bring the Church into the modern era, including by restricting the Tridentine mass.
SSPX refused to stop performing the mass, which is conducted in Latin by a priest who keeps his back to the congregation, in a ceremony marked by incense and Gregorian chants.
By 1975, the Vatican had stripped the society’s ministers of all authority.
Undeterred, Lefebvre illicitly ordained four bishops in 1988, resulting in immediate excommunication.
‘Force this through’
By threatening to ordain more bishops, the society risks undoing efforts to improve relations with the Vatican under recent popes.
Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication in 2009 and his successor Francis said SSPX priests can celebrate marriages in traditionalist churches under some circumstances.
But since Leo was elected last year, “they haven’t stopped criticizing the pope,” Martin Dumont, head of the Institute for Research on the Study of Religions at the Sorbonne University, said.
And any fresh attempt to ordain new bishops would be seen by Rome as a direct threat to the unity of the Church.
“The act they are about to commit is schismatic in spirit,” Dumont said.
The society’s decision to forge ahead with ordaining its own bishops has not come as a surprise.
“They are trying to force this through, but it’s been in the works for several years now,” Dumont said.
SSPX, which has 720 priests but now only two bishops, claims its survival is at stake.
It needs more bishops because it has around 600,000 followers worldwide and the number is “growing in a number of countries,” notably France, Germany and the United States, Dumont said.
‘Bridge the gap’
Leo is keen to preserve Church unity and has made concessions toward traditionalists, notably by authorizing use of the Tridentine mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, head of the Vatican’s department for doctrinal matters, has offered to meet with the society in Rome on February 12, it said.
“Rome has always extended a hand, saying: ‘Come back, we are ready to welcome you,’” Dumont said.
A canon lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity said one solution could be to “find bishops to bridge the gap between the two sides.”
But he warned the bishop question masked “a much deeper problem,” namely “the fact that they do not recognize the Second Vatican Council.”
Pushing through with the ordination of new bishops means one thing only, the lawyer said.
“Canon law is very clear: if bishops ordain other bishops without a papal mandate, they are automatically excommunicated,” he said.
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