March 3, 2025 Story by: Editor
A nonprofit organization based in the United States has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate former President Joe Biden and two of his top cabinet members for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The request was filed last month by Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) but was made public by the organization on Monday. It urges the ICC to examine Biden, along with former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, for their “accessorial roles in aiding and abetting, as well as intentionally contributing to, Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.”
Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif—whose recent death was confirmed by Hamas—for alleged war crimes related to the Gaza conflict.
Dawn’s 172-page submission, reportedly compiled with input from ICC-registered lawyers and war crimes experts, asserts that the former U.S. officials breached articles of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, by supporting Israel.
According to a press release, the submission outlines what Dawn describes as “a pattern of deliberate and purposeful decisions by these officials to provide military, political, and public support to facilitate Israeli crimes in Gaza.” This includes “at least $17.9bn 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.”
One excerpt from the submission claims that “by continuously and unconditionally providing political support and military support to Israel while being fully aware of the specific crimes committed by Netanyahu, Gallant, and their subordinates, President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and Secretary Austin contributed intentionally to the commission of those crimes while at least knowing the intention of the group to commit the Israeli crimes, if not aiming of furthering such criminal activity.”
Dawn’s executive director, Sarah Leah Whitson, stated that “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.”
The statement further highlights U.S. political support for Israel, citing its use of veto power at the United Nations Security Council to block multiple ceasefire resolutions.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump signed an executive order permitting severe economic sanctions against the ICC, accusing the court of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the U.S. and Israel.
Dawn also stated on Monday that Trump’s order could render him “individually criminally liable for obstruction of justice.”
Additionally, the organization warned that if Trump were to follow through on his proposed plan to forcibly remove all Palestinians from Gaza and take control of the territory, he could be held “individually liable for war crimes and the crime of aggression.”
Raed Jarrar, Dawn’s advocacy director, argued that the plan warranted ICC scrutiny, “not just for aiding and abetting Israeli crimes but for ordering forcible transfer, a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute.” Source: The Guardian
