{"id":41273,"date":"2026-07-31T20:48:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41273"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:53:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:53:53","slug":"icc-campaign-aimed-at-defending-netanyahu-trump","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/icc-campaign-aimed-at-defending-netanyahu-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC campaign aimed at defending Netanyahu: Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The United States (US) President Donald Trump said this Friday that a US campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court (ICC) was intended to defend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others \u200cfrom prosecution, not himself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Trump made the comment after Secretary of State Marco Rubio \u2060told a cabinet meeting at Camp David that five countries had announced plans to quit the court since the US launched a campaign earlier this \u200cmonth against what it says is a threat to US sovereignty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\u201cThere\u2019s no information that they\u2019re after me,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\u201cIt could happen, but just so you know he (Rubio) is not trying to \u200bdefend me. He\u2019s trying to defend Bibi and various other people,\u201d Trump said, using Netanyahu\u2019s nickname. \u201cBut there are many people that shouldn\u2019t be looked at that way. But there is no \u2060indication that I\u2019m one of them at this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Rubio responded that the people in biggest danger were US service members, who he \u200bsaid could face prosecution years later over their actions in war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The ICC was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide \u200band crimes against humanity. It asserts jurisdiction only if a \u200cmember state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The US has never been a member of the court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">However, the ICC statute also gives \u2060the court the power to prosecute atrocity crimes committed on the territory of member states by nationals of non-member states.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Trump\u2019s opposition toward the court goes back to his first term. It surfaced again with a plan to penalize \u2060ICC officials, an idea developed in November 2024 when Trump was reelected and the ICC issued an arrest warrant \u200bfor Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Rubio earlier this month denounced the court based in The Hague, citing calls from activists for the ICC to investigate US personnel over actions \u200clike the deportation of migrants or US strikes on boats that officials say are carrying narcotics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Trump administration has said it would lobby other countries \u200cto leave the court and use travel bans and further sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organisations to\u00a0\u2060try to undermine the court, which is \u200cbeing opposed in the courts\u00a0\u200bby ICC judges and US advocacy groups which accuse the administration of violating their free-speech rights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\u2014-Reuters\u2014<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15386,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-41273","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The ICC statute also gives \u2060the court the power to prosecute atrocity crimes committed on the territory of member states by nationals of non-member states.","published_date":"","news_description":"The ICC statute also gives \u2060the court the power to prosecute atrocity crimes committed on the territory of member states by nationals of non-member states.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41274,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41273\/revisions\/41274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}