The House on Thursday passed a bill that would impose sanctions on officials of the International Criminal Court, launching a frontal attack on the court by rebuking its move to charge top Israeli leaders with war crimes over their offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
The bill requires the president to freeze real estate assets and deny visas to all aliens who have materially or financially contributed to the court’s efforts to “investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute a protected person.” Protected persons are defined as all current and former military and government officials of the United States and its allies who have not consented to the court’s jurisdiction, such as Israel.
The measure is one of several pushed through the House by Republicans last year, but it died in the Democratic-led Senate, and is now all but certain to be enacted now that Republicans control both houses of Congress and Trump is taking office January 20th.
Last year, a similar measure won some bipartisan support in the House, but still faced resistance from many Democrats, who joined Republicans in criticizing the ICC’s move to prosecute Israeli leaders, but they defined the sanctions as overly broad and ineffective. With Republicans now in power, the barriers to passing the bill appear to have fallen.
“The rogue actions of the International Criminal Court only enable terrorists who seek to wipe Israel off the map, and they cannot be allowed to go unchecked,” Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican and leader, said on the House floor this week. of the majority. “In November, I promised that if Leader Schumer didn’t bring the ICC sanctions bill to the floor, the Republicans would. And soon we will keep that promise and vote in support of our ally Israel.”
The 243-140 House vote, in which 45 Democrats joined all Republicans in supporting the bill, reflects considerable bipartisan exasperation among lawmakers with the court’s decision to prosecute Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity together with Hamas leaders. , whose deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, kicked off a bloody reaction in the Gaza Strip.
“America is passing this law because a sham court is trying to arrest the prime minister of our great ally,” Rep. Brian Mast, Florida Republican and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on the floor. He accused the court of anti-Semitism, of trying to impede the Israeli army’s success and of hindering efforts to free Israeli and American hostages held by Hamas.
“This bill sends an incredibly important message to the entire world,” Mast added. “Do not stand in America’s way or our allies’ efforts to bring our people home. You will be granted no quarter and, once again, you will certainly not be welcome on American soil.
The United States has sent billions of dollars worth of arms shipments to Israel since the start of the armed conflict, despite international condemnation of its attack on Gaza and accusations from human rights groups that its actions amount to to a genocide. Efforts to broker a ceasefire have eluded the Biden administration. Trump said this week that if Hamas didn’t release the Israeli hostages by the time he took office, “all hell would break loose in the Middle East.”
Congressional Republicans have been trying to crack down on the court since May, when its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defense minister, Yoav Gallant, together with Yahya Sinwar, the Israeli judge. Hamas leader in Gaza; Ismail Haniyeh, its Qatar-based boss; and Muhammad Deif, its top military commander. The House first passed a bill to impose sanctions on judicial officials and their associates just two weeks later.
In November, the court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Deif for war crimes and crimes against humanity. By then, it had been confirmed that Sinwar and Haniyeh had been killed by Israeli forces. Israel also claimed to have killed Mr. Deif.
Supporters of the bill argued that the sanctions are a necessary rebuke to the Court’s move to equate Israeli leaders with the leaders of a terrorist group like Hamas. They also insisted that the measure is a major repudiation of what they see as an overreach by the court, since Israel, like the United States, has not consented to its jurisdiction.
The bill is “critically important not only to our friendship with our ally Israel, but also to our national security, the protection of our men and women in uniform,” said Rep. Chip Roy, Republican of Texas and author of the bill. flooring. He argued that if the United States failed to impose court sanctions, U.S. service members could be targeted for their conduct in foreign conflicts.
The ICC, Roy added, “should have no authority over our people, nor any authority over the prime minister of Israel.”
Most Democrats opposed the legislation, arguing that it was trying to punish too broad a swath of people for the decision.
“Republicans want to sanction the ICC simply because they don’t want the rules to apply to everyone,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts. “There is no international right to revenge, and what we are seeing in Gaza is revenge.”
The International Criminal Court claims jurisdiction over alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by citizens of states that have recognized the court or occurring in countries that have recognized it. The Palestinian Territories did so in 2015, a few years after the United Nations admitted Palestine as an observer state.
The United States and Israel were among only seven countries that voted against the creation of the criminal court in 1998. Although both countries subsequently signed its founding document, the Rome Statute, neither has ratified it.