The House is expected to pass legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court on Thursday in protest of its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This would be one of the first acts of the new Congress.
The bill will then head to the Senate, where Republican Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised a swift vote to have it on President-elect Donald Trump’s desk by the time he takes office.
Last time the House voted on the bill in June, 42 Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the legislation, despite opposition to it from President Joe Biden.
Libertarian-minded Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has not been afraid to break with his colleagues on Israel-related bills, questioned why the legislation was a week-one priority for the new congressional term.
On May 20, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)
“The United States is a sovereign country, so I don’t assign any credibility to decisions of the International Criminal Court. But how did a bill to protect Netanyahu make it into the House rules package to be voted on immediately after the Speaker vote? Where are our priorities?!” he wrote on X last week.
The legislation was reintroduced by Texas Reps. Chip Roy, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast, both Republicans.
On May 20, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif. All three Hamas leaders were killed in the past year.
Netanyahu fired Gallant shortly after the U.S. presidential election.
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Khan’s application was unprecedented – the first time the criminal court had sought arrests for Western-allied officials.
The judges on the ICC panel in November granted the warrants, finding that Netanyahu and Gallant had “committed the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, as a direct perpetrator, acting jointly with others. The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that they are each responsible for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilians as a superior.”
Netanyahu, left, fired his defense minister Gallant, right, on November 6. (Reuters/Pool)
IDF soldiers fighting in the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit)
“The ICC is an illegitimate body that has no business interfering with our sovereignty or that of our allies,” said Roy.
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“The ICC’s attempt to obstruct Israel’s right to defend itself has only prolonged the war and prevented the release of American hostages by boosting Hamas’ morale,” Mast said in a statement.
Israel has carried out a vicious campaign to eliminate Hamas in Gaza since Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Trump has warned both sides to wrap up the conflict, and Hamas to return the hostages by the time he takes office on Jan. 20.
The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act would sanction any foreigner working to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute U.S. citizens or those of an allied country.
It spans the 32-member NATO security alliance and 19 major non-NATO countries, including Israel.
It would also claw back any funds the U.S. has designated for the ICC and prohibit any future money from going to the court.
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Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has introduced companion legislation in the Senate. When the legislation passed the House last during the Congress, then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did not take it up for a vote in the upper chamber. With Republicans in charge, Thune is intent on passing the legislation and getting it to the president’s desk by the time he is inaugurated.
