The US House of Representatives has approved a bill that provides for the possibility of imposing sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) for considering cases against Washington and its allies.
Reuters writes about it.
The document was supported by 247 congressmen — 205 Republicans and 42 Democrats. 155 representatives of the US Democratic Party spoke against the initiative.
According to the draft law, the United States will be able to impose sanctions against persons involved in the prosecution by the ICC of Americans or citizens of US-allied countries that are not members of the ICC, in particular Israel. ISS officials are proposed to be banned from entering the United States, stripped of their American visas, and prohibited from conducting transactions with American real estate.
Republicans introduced the bill after International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan asked the ICC Trial Chamber in May to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant and three Hamas leaders. Prosecutors hold them responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the war that broke out between Israel and Hamas in the fall of 2023.
The bill is unlikely to be considered in the Senate, where the majority is Democrats. But it shows steady support for Israel in the House of Representatives amid growing international criticism of Israelʼs military campaign in the Gaza Strip. As NBC News notes, although US President Joe Biden called the ICC prosecutorʼs demands "outrageous", his administration said it opposes the bill.
- On May 20, 2024, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, as well as three leaders of the Palestinian movement Hamas. The prosecutorʼs office believes that Yoav Galant and Benjamin Netanyahu are criminally responsible for using starvation as a method of warfare, as well as for intentional harm to health, intentional killings, attacks on the civilian population of Gaza, and other crimes against humanity.
- Afterwards, far-right Israeli finance and national security ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir accused Karim Khan of "anti-Semitism". Karim Khanʼs request was called a manifestation of "hypocrisy and hatred of Jews." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the request for his arrest was an "eternal disgrace" to the court.
- Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson said that the US could impose sanctions against the ICC if a warrant was issued for Netanyahuʼs arrest.