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Brick by Brick
The same investigation, restaged one beat at a time. Drive it with the arrow keys, space, or autoplay. Nothing is cut from the piece — long runs are split across frames. Read the full investigation or open the Israeli Influence on the United States hub.
Brick by Brick
The US Secretary of State vowed to dismantle the International Criminal Court — the permanent heir to Nuremberg — as the prime minister it indicted calls it 'a positive development.'
A sitting Secretary of State has committed the US government to taking apart the world's only permanent atrocity court.
The critique of the ICC is real and we state it. But tearing the court down is not reforming it — it is removing the referee, and there is no second one waiting behind it.
In July 2026 Marco Rubio announced a whole-of-government campaign to dismantle the ICC, accusing it of 'waging war' on US and Israeli sovereignty.
On July 13–14, 2026 the Secretary of State said the US would take the court apart 'brick by brick' if necessary, describing a toolkit of sanctions, visa bans, pressure on allies to quit the court, and threats to cut security assistance to states that support it.
The US has sanctioned ICC judges and deputy prosecutors — and Palestinian human-rights NGOs — explicitly over the Israel warrants.
Beginning with Executive Order 14203 in early 2025, successive rounds hit ICC officials and groups such as Al-Haq, Al Mezan and PCHR, tied directly to the court's investigation and arrest warrants for Israeli and US nationals. The State Department's own releases name the officials and the rationale.
ICC judges have now sued the United States over the sanctions — reportedly the first time sitting judges of the court have taken Washington to court.
In 2026 sitting ICC judges filed suit challenging the US sanctions. It is a measure of how far the confrontation has run: the people the sanctions target are now litigants against the government that imposed them.
Netanyahu says Rubio has assured him, repeatedly, that Washington will act forcefully against the court — and calls it 'a positive development' the world should 'echo.'
This is Netanyahu's own on-record account, and the repetition is the point: he says Rubio 'reiterated' and 'once again reaffirmed' the intent to act forcefully against the court. Graded FACT as to what Netanyahu said — the sourced wording is 'act forcefully against,' not the viral 'promised to destroy.'
“Once again he reaffirmed to me the United States' intention to act forcefully against the International Criminal Court.”
Graded FACT as to what Netanyahu said. This is his own sourced wording — 'act forcefully against.' The sharper 'promised to destroy it' phrasing comes from a viral social-media post; we use the on-record line, not the gloss.
Dismantle the ICC and no permanent court remains that can put an individual leader on trial for genocide or war crimes.
The ICC is the permanent successor to Nuremberg, created by the Rome Statute to be the standing atrocity court. Graded PROBABLY TRUE because it is analytical, but well-founded: the ICJ hears only state-vs-state disputes with no criminal convictions; ad-hoc tribunals need a UN Security Council vote any permanent member can veto; and universal-jurisdiction national courts are patchy and politically fragile.
Reform is one thing. Demolition is another.
- Rubio's public 'whole-of-government' vow to dismantle the court 'brick by brick.'
- Sanctions since EO 14203 on named ICC judges and prosecutors, tied to the Israel warrants.
- Sitting ICC judges suing the United States.
- The US never joined the court, and whether it reaches non-member nationals is a genuine legal dispute — we put that argument on the page.
- That Rubio 'promised to destroy' the ICC — a viral gloss; we use Netanyahu's sourced 'act forcefully against' instead.
- 'It's biased' is an argument about the court; 'dismantle it brick by brick' is an argument against accountability itself.
Whether the ICC can lawfully reach nationals of non-member states like the US and Israel is unresolved.
An authoritative legal resolution of the contested question of the court's jurisdiction over non-member nationals.
Help us fill it →Killing the referee.
The same actors documented across this site for extrajudicial killing, dead witnesses, and self-dealing are, in the same window, going after the only standing body that could ever hold them to account. The trigger was the Netanyahu warrants, which is why it sits in Israeli Influence — but the stakes are everyone's.
Help us fill these lines.
- OpenAn authoritative resolution of whether the ICC has legal jurisdiction to prosecute nationals of non-member states such as the United States and Israel, and how that contested question is likely to be settled.