The International Criminal Court (ICC) strongly rejects United States sanctions against the institution..."No one should be punished for serving the cause of justice. History will judge this moment. Future generations, and above all the victims of mass atrocities, will ask how we responded when an institution created to protect them came under attack. They will ask whether the Court held firm and whether the international community defended the principles it proclaimed or allowed them to be abandoned under pressure. "

The International Criminal Court

Press Release: 9 October 2026 

Today, the United States has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court as an institution. This unprecedented step follows a series of designations against thirteen independent Judges and prosecutors who serve the cause of justice. 

This measure targets an independent judicial institution, created by treaty and entrusted by 125 States Parties with investigating and prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. It is an attempt to obstruct the course of justice and to prevent the Court from doing what it was created to do. It is an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law.

The designation is aimed at disrupting the Court’s operations and at intimidating those who work for or cooperate with the Court. The Court, for its part, will not be deterred. “The Court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes” said ICC President Tomoko Akane. 

Yet the Court cannot stand alone. Its fate now rests also in the hands of the States that created it. The Rome Statute is a collective promise that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished. That promise is only as strong as the resolve of those who made it. 

There may be challenges. But, together with its States Parties, the Court has made considerable efforts to ensure the continuity and resilience of its activities. The Court calls upon States to continue taking concrete actions, including to ensure that the Court continues to have the necessary means to continue its work. This is not just about defending a single institution, but about safeguarding the international order grounded upon the rule of law. 

No one should be punished for serving the cause of justice. History will judge this moment. Future generations, and above all the victims of mass atrocities, will ask how we responded when an institution created to protect them came under attack. They will ask whether the Court held firm and whether the international community defended the principles it proclaimed or allowed them to be abandoned under pressure. 

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For further information, please contact the ICC Public Affairs Unit. You can also follow the Court’s activities on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Flickr.

 https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/icc-strongly-rejects-us-sanctions-against-institution

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Towards A More Just World... learn more

Int'l Criminal Court

@IntlCrimCourt

 

⚖️ Even in the most challenging times, the #ICC remains steadfast in its mission: to bring justice to the victims of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. Learn more about the #ICCProcess ➡️https://icc-cpi.pulse.ly/d6u8taynjm

 

How the Court works

The crimes

The Court's founding treaty, called the Rome Statute, grants the ICC jurisdiction over four main crimes.

First, the crime of genocide is characterised by the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by other means: causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Second, the ICC can prosecute crimes against humanity, which are serious violations committed as part of a large-scale attack against any civilian population. The 15 forms of crimes against humanity listed in the Rome Statute include offences such as murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, enslavement – particularly of women and children, sexual slavery, torture, apartheid and deportation.

Third, war crimes which are grave breaches of the Geneva conventions in the context of armed conflict and include, for instance, the use of child soldiers; the killing or torture of persons such as civilians or prisoners of war; intentionally directing attacks against hospitals, historic monuments, or buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes.

Finally, the fourth crime falling within the ICC's jurisdiction is the crime of aggression. It is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, integrity or independence of another State. The definition of this crime was adopted through amending the Rome Statute at the first Review Conference of the Statute in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010.

On 15 December 2017, the Assembly of States Parties adopted by consensus a resolution on the activation of the jurisdiction of the Court over the crime of aggression as of 17 July 2018.

See The Rome Statute and Elements of Crimes

https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/how-the-court-works

 

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Ten key facts about the legal process

Further to the Key Features listed above, here are some of the basics you may want to know:

• The ICC does not prosecute those under the age of 18 when a crime was committed.
• Before the Prosecutor can investigate, he must conduct a preliminary examination considering such matters as sufficient evidence, jurisdiction, gravity, complementarity, and the interests of justice.
• When investigating, the Prosecutor must collect and disclose both incriminating and exonerating evidence.
• The defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof lies with the Prosecutor.
• During all stages of proceedings (Pre-Trial, Trial and Appeals), the defendant has the right to information in a language he or she fully understands, thus the ICC proceedings are conducted in multiple languages, with teams of interpreters and translators at work.
• Pre-Trial judges issue warrants of arrest and ensure there is enough evidence before a case can go to trial.
• Before a case is committed to trial (during the Pre-Trial phase), the defendant is referred to as a suspect. Once the case is committed to trial, since at that point the charges have been confirmed, the defendant is referred to as the accused.
• Trial judges hear the evidence from the Prosecutor, Defence, and the Victims’ lawyers, render a verdict, and if a person is found guilty, the sentence and decision on reparations.
• Appeals judges render decisions on appeals from the Prosecutor or Defence.
• If a case is closed without a verdict of guilt, it can be reopened if the Prosecutor presents new evidence.

Local churches call it genocide — and say silence is no longer an option | Joyce M. Davis in The Patriot News

Joyce M. Davis, Outreach & Opinion Editor. July 23, 2024. Sean Simmers | 

• Joyce M. Davis | jdavis@pennlive.com

There was a time when mainline Christian churches in the United States were loath to say anything critical of Israel and its actions in the Middle East. That time has passed.

Throughout the United States and right here in Central Pennsylvania, many Christian churches and entire denominations are speaking out against what they say are Israel’s human-rights abuses in Gaza. Many are even accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinian people.

That’s the word a coalition of faith groups in Central Pennsylvania is using to announce its Harrisburg Free Palestina Film Festival to call attention to Israel’s actions in Gaza. They called it ‘genocide’. It’s the same term used by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry in its report on Israel’s actions in Gaza.

It means the United Nations commission investigated Israel’s bombing and the conduct of its troops in Gaza and concluded that Israel was intentionally trying to wipe out the estimated 2.1 million Palestinian men, women and children living there.

It’s the same word the world used to describe what happened to six million Jews who were tortured, starved to death, shoved into gas chambers or starved to death in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Genocide.

The Christian leaders speaking out against it include representatives of the Quakers, the United Methodists, the Unitarians, the Church of the Brethren and the United Church of Christ. At their press conference on Thursday, they said it’s their moral duty to break the silence and to call attention to the suffering.

These pastors and laity say that what happened to Jews during World War II is happening to Palestinians today. There may not be gas chambers, but they say innocent people are being tortured, executed and starved to death in Gaza.... READ MORE   https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2026/09/local-churches-call-it-genocide-and-say-silence-is-no-longer-an-option-joyce-m-davis.html?gift=7d3a8e79-fdb9-4bf8-ab6c-ea305c86e25e

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Francesca Albanese says that what’s happening in West Bank is a continuation of Israel’s [1948] Nakba

https://youtube.com/shorts/MIEBgD5rX0I?si=_B8as4ZZ0oex61jK

 

Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence analyst jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, has said he will stand for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing.

Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence officer convicted of spying for Israel, pictured in New York City in 2017. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

 

Ex-US spy for Israel calls for Gaza ethnic cleansing as he seeks Knesset seat

Jonathan Pollard, who served 30 years for selling US military secrets, advocates ‘forcible removal’ of Palestinians

Julian Borger in Jerusalem

Tue 5 May 2026 14.21 EDT

Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence analyst jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, has said he will stand for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing.

Speaking to Channel 13 television, Pollard said: “I personally prefer the forcible removal of all current residents of Gaza, and the annexation of Gaza and its repopulation by us.”

Pollard said he decided to enter politics because of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities that killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered the Gaza war. He blamed the Israeli government for failure to prevent the attack or intervene quickly after it began.

“Until then, I thought that the abandonment and betrayal I experienced from the government was an exception and not the rule, but after October 7 I realized that I was not an exception,” he said.

Pollard was released on parole at the age of 61 from US prison in 2015 after serving 30 years for selling military secrets to Israel for money. He and his wife, Anne Henderson, were arrested in 1985 after Pollard passed a huge volume of classified documents to Israeli intelligence – enough to fill a 10ftx6ftx6ft room, by Pollard’s own calculation. In return he received cash and jewels... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/05/jonathan-pollard-israel-gaza-ethnic-cleansing

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Israel’s settlement expansion drives mass displacement in West Bank [Palestine] – United Nations report 17 March 2026

© Wahaj Bani Moufleh / Middle East Images via AFP

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/03/israels-settlement-expansion-drives-mass-displacement-west-bank-un-report 

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GENEVA – The Government of Israel has accelerated unlawful settlement expansion and annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, forcibly displacing over 36,000 Palestinians amid increasing violence by Israeli security forces and settlers, says a UN Human Rights Office report.

The report, which covers the 12-month period up to 31 October 2025, documents 1,732 incidents of settler violence resulting in casualties or property damage, compared to 1,400 in the previous reporting period. This includes relentless harassment, intimidation, and destruction of homes and farmland.

“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct,” the report says, making it difficult to distinguish between State and settler violence. Longstanding and pervasive impunity is “facilitating and encouraging violence against and harassment of Palestinians”, it adds.

Last October, around the time of the olive harvest, the report documented 42 settler attacks leading to the injury of 131 Palestinians, including 14 women and a boy, the highest number recorded in a single month since 2006. Daily attacks by armed settlers, soldiers and “settler soldiers” – many of whom have been armed, equipped and trained by State authorities – along with the closure of more land to Palestinian landowners and harvesters made the 2025 season the worst in decades.

In some cases, the report found acts of gender-based violence became the final trigger for displacement. Other attacks led to family separation in which women and children were forced to leave, while male family members remained to attempt to retain possession of lands and properties.

“The displacement in the occupied West Bank, which coincides with the extensive displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, at the hands of the Israeli military, appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing,” the report says.

It pointed to the heightened risk of displacement faced by thousands of Palestinians from Bedouin communities located northeast of East Jerusalem due to the advancement of settlement plans, adding that the unlawful transfer of protected people is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The report notes that such acts potentially incur the individual criminal responsibility of officials engaged in them, and under certain circumstances, may also amount to a crime against humanity.

The report also concludes that the transfer of power from the Israeli military to civilian authorities, measures to confiscate Palestinian lands for settlement expansion, as well as other discriminatory policies and practices “amounted to an institutionalised regime of systematic discrimination, oppression and violence by Israel against Palestinians”, violating the international law prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid.

The report points to the advancement or approval by Israeli authorities of 36,973 housing units in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and around 27,200 in the rest of the West Bank. An unprecedented 84 new outposts were also established during the reporting period. The report also notes the expansion of settlement activity into Area B of the occupied West Bank, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority according to the Oslo agreements.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls on Israel to immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements, for the evacuation all settlers, and an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territory. Israel must also enable the return of displaced Palestinians, and stop all practices of land confiscation, forced evictions and house demolitions.

To read the full report, click here.

 https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc6170-israeli-settlements-occupied-palestinian-territory-including

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Bishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna: Resolving the Palestinian issue is the key to peace....

Bishop Atta Hanna

Archbishop of the Orthodox Rome

 

Theodosios Atallah Hanna

oprotnedSsl3thacalm7fJfa5r:A 0uc7fc1t nMat 0i13170lya 564118  ·

Resolving the Palestinian issue is the key to peace....

 

Emptying the Palestinian land from its inhabitants is an old and new colonial scheme, and we have recently noticed an increase in the policy of eradicating the Palestinians from their lands in the midst of the continuous and continuous assaults of the settlers who attack the security citizens and target their lives and livelihood in all its details.

 

Lately we are seeing an uptick in settlers attacks who seek to intimidate citizens with their barbaric, unacceptable and unjustified ways.

 

It is a purposeful plan to empty the Palestinian land from its original inhabitants and all Palestinians have the great responsibility to uplift this people and protect them from all attacks, policies and racist practices.

 

That the issue of arranging the inner Palestinian house is not an intellectual luxury as much as it is an urgent need to preserve the remaining Palestinians in this holy land.

 

They lied to us when they told us about peace and about two countries for Shaaban, so today we observe that the Palestinian lands are being stolen, and the Palestinian issue is being filtered, and we are certain that all projects to filter the Palestinian issue have failed miserably.

 

Where are the Arab brothers from all of this, and they who once said that Palestine was their first cause.

 

That the War of Genocide has clearly shown the reactionary Arab state, and everyone is aware that the occupation could not have fulfilled its conditions, agendas and programs if it were not for the Arab illusion, so if the Arabs were in a better condition, we wouldn't have reached where we have reached in Palestine and other places, despite the gloomy picture, we are We will remain optimistic because the Palestinian issue is a case of right and justice, and it cannot be broken or filtered, no matter how they conspire on it and plan to filter it, but this requires from the Palestinians more wisdom, sobriety, awareness and unity in the face of challenges.

 

The whole world must realize that peace begins with Palestine and through solving the Palestinian issue, which is the key to peace and conspiring on the Palestinian cause and on the oppressed Palestinian people will not get us anywhere to the real peace we want and desire.

 

Bishop Atta Hanna

Archbishop of the Orthodox Rome

Jerusalem 31/1/2026

https://www.facebook.com/theodosios.atallah.hanna

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Theodosios Atallah Hanna

srpoStdneoa896 ttil30083g5M2u1  3Jc 91rf5iym:antAu3maca1002i  ·

We raise our prayers this morning for our people in Gaza, affected, and for our children in the West Bank who are being targeted in a horrific way, in pious and unbiblical ways and methods.

 

Palestinians are all targeted in their land and in their livelihood and in every detail of their lives. We ask you, O Lord, while we are in our holy city, to be with our people and all our children in their distress, pain and pain.

 

Our people in Gaza deserve to live with dignity, and to be blessed with life, which is a gift from God, and also our people in the West Bank deserve to live in better conditions, and to enjoy the freedom of movement from one place to another, away from barriers, away from assaults and from compromising.

 

We pray for our Palestinian people, who are subjected to oppression and terrorism policies in more than one place and in more than one site.

 

O Lord, have mercy on this oppressed people, and be with them and protect them, and keep them away from all evil.

 

A STATEMENT FROM THE PATRIARCHS AND HEADS OF THE CHURCHES IN JERUSALEM ON UNITY AND REPRESENTATION OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE HOLY LAND

January 17, 2026

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in the Holy Land affirm before the faithful and before the world that the flock of Christ in this land is entrusted to the Apostolic Churches, which have borne their sacred ministry across centuries with steadfast devotion. Recent activities undertaken by local individuals who advance damaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism, mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock. These undertakings have found favor among certain political actors in Israel and beyond who seek to push a political agenda which may harm the Christian presence in the Holy Land and the wider Middle East.

Holy Scripture teaches us that “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:5). To claim authority outside the communion of the Church is to wound the unity of the faithful and burden the pastoral mission entrusted to the historic churches in the very land where our Lord lived, taught, suffered, and rose from the dead.

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches further note with concern that these individuals have been welcomed at official levels both locally and internationally. Such actions constitute interference in the internal life of the churches and disregard the pastoral responsibility vested in the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem.

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem reiterate that they alone represent the Churches and their flock in matters pertaining to Christian religious, communal, and pastoral life in the Holy Land.

May the Lord, who is the Shepherd and Guardian of souls, grant wisdom for the protection of His people and the safeguarding of His witness in this sacred land.

—The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem

https://en.jerusalem-patriarchate.info/announcements/a-statement-from-the-patriarchs-and-heads-of-the-churches-in-jerusalem-on-unity-and-representation-of-the-christian-communities-in-the-holy-land/ 

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