Human rights advocacy organisation DAWN has requested that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate former US officials, President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, for their alleged roles in “aiding and abetting” as well as intentionally contributing to Israeli war crimes against Gaza.
In a court document addressed to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, the advocacy organisation detailed a pattern of deliberate and purposeful decisions by the 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,” said Reed Brody, DAWN board member and veteran war crimes lawyer.
Brody stated that there are solid grounds to investigate the trio for complicity in Israel’s crimes.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN, said that the trio aided Israel by vetoing multiple ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council.
“Not only did Biden, Blinken, and Secretary Austin ignore and justify the overwhelming evidence of Israel’s grotesque and deliberate crimes, overruling their staff recommendations to halt weapons transfers to Israel, but they also doubled down by providing Israel with unconditional military and political support to ensure it could carry out its atrocities.
In the court documents submitted by DAWN, it stated that multiple sources, including the Biden administration, documented how the Israel Defence Forces persistently, repeatedly, and predictably used US weapons to carry out attacks in violation of international law.
“The Biden administration officials repeatedly intervened to block efforts to curb US military assistance, despite knowledge of its role in facilitating Israeli crimes.
“They ensured that US support continued despite the knowledge that such support violated US laws prohibiting military assistance to abusive security forces, ignored pleas from United Nations officials and agencies, and defied the International Court of Justice’s orders to cease the sale, transfer, and diversion of weapons to Israel that could be used to commit genocide in Gaza.”
DAWN further detailed the absence of complementarity in US courts, stating that not only were the US prosecutors and courts unable to investigate the crimes committed by US officials in Palestine, but they were also unwilling to do so.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order for sanctions against ICC officials to punish them for their investigation of Israeli officials.
On February 13, the Treasury Department sanctioned ICC Prosecutor Khan under the order.
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