The selection of John Bolton for the position of National Security Advisor on Apr. 9, 2018, was, to those familiar with his record of warmongering and extremism, one of the scariest moments of Trump’s presidency so far. Earlier this month, he confirmed that notion in a fiery speech to the Federalist Society, a right-wing think tank in Washington, D.C.
In the Sept. 10 speech, Bolton railed against the International Criminal Court, also known as the Hague. The ICC is an international tribunal that has been working to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity since 2003.
In his speech, Bolton made his stance on the ICC more than clear.
“We will not cooperate with the ICC," he said. "We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC.”
Bolton was responding to recent efforts by the ICC to investigate the United States for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. The ICC prosecutor has applied to investigate allegations against U.S. forces, the CIA and the Afghan military, in addition to the Taliban and its affiliated forces.
The U.S. has been unwilling to fully cooperate with the ICC from the start. The U.S. was one of only seven countries to vote against the Rome Statute, the statute that mandated the creation of the court, in 1998. Legislation passed and signed under the Bush administration explicitly prohibited the U.S. government from cooperating with the court.
Bolton is merely making the U.S.’s obstruction of the ICC more overt.
“We will let the ICC die on its own," he said. "After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us.”
It’s no surprise that a war-mongering right-wing nationalist like Bolton doesn’t accept the principle that the U.S. should be held accountable for international law. But Bolton also apparently believes Israel, and presumably other U.S. allies, need to be protected from prosecution.
Bolton used the speech to announce that in response to Palestinian attempts to get the ICC to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes, the Trump administration will close down the Washington office of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO, recognized by virtually the entire world as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, will now have no diplomatic base in the U.S.
“There has also been a suggestion that the ICC will investigate Israeli construction of housing projects on the West Bank,” Bolton said.
As if there is anything remotely surprising or controversial about that.
Israel’s colonies in the West Bank, an occupied Palestinian territory, are unambiguously seen by almost the whole world as violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits transferring civilian populations to occupied territory. The scandal is not that the ICC might theoretically investigate Israel for them; the scandal is that it hasn’t already.
John Bolton threatened to sanction ICC judges and prosecutors simply for doing their jobs. He vowed to ban them from the country and even prosecute them in U.S. criminal court if they dare investigate the actions of the U.S. military or CIA.
The ICC does have its flaws, most notably that only one of its past investigations has been into crimes outside Africa. But that’s why a possible investigation into the U.S. and the Afghan government is promising. The ICC should proceed to do its job, unhindered by John Bolton’s threats.
