Bahbah: Trump’s Dual Punch--Closes PLO Office and Declares War on the ICC
By: Bishara A. Bahbah/Arab America Featured Columnist
On Monday, September 10, 2018, the Trump administration announced that it will be shutting down the PLO diplomatic delegation in Washington, DC. The State Department’s statement justified the US’s decision because it alleged that “the PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of the direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.” The State Department added that it has concerns that the PLO office is attempting to trigger an ICC investigation of Israel.
More bizarre than the US announcement to close down the PLO office in D.C. was Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton’s statements in a speech that, “the United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court [International Criminal Court].” Bolton was referring here to the ongoing ICC investigation into alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan.
With regard to Israel, Bolton defended Israel’s right to “defend its citizens from terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Gaza.”
According to Bolton, “If the Court comes after us, Israel or other U.S. allies, we will not sit quietly. We will ban judges and prosecutors from entering the United States. We will sanction their funds in the U.S. financial system, and, we will prosecute [emphasis added] them in the U.S. criminal system.”
With regard to the closure of the PLO office, that really comes as no surprise. There has been a complete breakdown between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017. Also, from a practical point of view, the PLO office in Washington was never a hub of diplomatic activity between the US, Israelis and the Palestinians. In fact, during previous U.S. administrations, the U.S. dealt directly on peace talks and bilateral issues with the decisionmakers in Ramallah and, often, the PLO representative in Washington was rarely kept in the loop of those negotiations or contacts.
The PLO office was not involved in the promotion of commercial ties between the United States and Palestine nor did it coordinate U.S. humanitarian or other assistance to the Palestinians. It certainly had no say whatsoever over how the Palestinians dealt with the ICC, as the State Department alleged. Its main function was to provide consular services to Palestinians residing in the United States and, in some futile cases, to energize U.S.-Palestinians to get involved in the U.S. political process to help influence the American public and U.S. decisionmakers vis-à-vis Palestinian issues. As such, the closure of the office is more symbolic or, put bluntly, a slap in the face of the Palestinian Authority.
Bolton’s declaration of war against the International Criminal Court is more serious because it directly affects the Americans and the ongoing war crime investigations against the United States as a result of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and the ensuing Afghan war. In November 2017, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, informed the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber, “There is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in connection with the armed conflict in Afghanistan.” She asked the court for authorization to commence an investigation that would focus on U.S. military and CIA leaders, as well as Taliban and Afghan officials.
Bensouda wrote in a November 14, 2016, report that her preliminary examination revealed “a reasonable basis to believe” that the “war crimes of torture and ill-treatment” had been committed “by US military forces deployed in Afghanistan and in secret detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, principally in the 2003-2004 period, although allegedly continuing in some cases until 2014.”
In his speech, Bolton stated that “this administration will fight back to protect American constitutionalism, our sovereignty, and our citizens.” He added, “no committee of foreign nations will tell us how to govern ourselves and defend our freedom.” Successive U.S. administrations have been genuinely worried about the reach of the ICC that they have pursued “binding bilateral agreements” to prevent other countries from handing over Americans to the ICC. Roughly 100 such agreements already exist, according to Bolton.
It is no wonder, therefore, why Bolton, a renowned hawk on US foreign policy and a fanatic supporter of Israel, vehemently defended Israel as well from the ICC’s ongoing investigations into Israel’s actions against the Palestinians on issues ranging from settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to civilian casualties in the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel.
While the United States played a central role in the establishment of the Rome Statute that created the ICC, the U.S. is not a State Party. The ICC which is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal is headquartered in The Hague. It was officially established in July 1998 and its mandate entered into force in July 2002. The ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes when national systems fail. Hitherto, 124 countries, including Palestine, are members of the ICC Assembly of State Parties.
Israel along with countries of shadowy human rights records such as China, India, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen – are not members of the ICC. The ICC differs from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in that the latter, also known as the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. However, the ICJ settles legal disputes between member states and gives advisory opinions to authorized UN organs and specialized agencies.
Ironically, despite the U.S. opposition to the ICC, under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. took steps to cooperate with the ICC, such as helping with investigations into alleged African war crimes. Like every other international body, it is utilized when a country determines that it is in its best interests to do so. The international rule of law regrettably ceases to be implemented when national interests come into play.
To sum up, the U.S. decision to close the PLO office is a watershed event – it will not force the Palestinians to the negotiating table given that the United States has been taking egregious policy decisions that are all in Israel’s favor and on issues that were supposed, under the Oslo Agreement, to have been negotiated between the Palestinians and the Israelis. If anything, the U.S.’s decision to close the PLO office will harden the Palestinians’ determination to shun the United States as a mediator in the conflict with Israel.
With regard to Trump’s threats against the ICC, Bolton has managed to make the United States the laughing stock of the international community. What reasonable country or countries in their right state of mind would threaten internationally recognized prosecutors and judges with “prosecution” for carrying out their legitimate mandates aimed at fighting international crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity?
Welcome to the new world disorder of the likes of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu!
Prof. Bishara Bahbah was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem based “Al-Fajr” newspaper between 1983-84. He was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Peace Talks on Arms Control and Regional Security. He taught at Harvard and was the associate director of its Kennedy School’s Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America.