House votes to sanction International Criminal Court

The House on Tuesday approved legislation aimed at penalizing the International Criminal Court (ICC) as it considers whether to bring war crimes charges against Israeli leaders for their conduct in the war with Hamas.

The count was 247-155, with all Republicans voting in favor of the proposal. They were joined by 42 pro-Israel Democrats with a history of supporting Tel Aviv, even when it undermines their own leadership.

Leaders of both parties – including President Biden – have strongly condemned the ICC’s suggestion that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister committed crimes against humanity in Gaza following the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7. . But Biden had opposed sanctions central to the Republican legislation, causing an overwhelming majority of Democrats to follow suit when the bill passed.

Without broad Democratic support, the legislation has no chance of passing the Senate and reaching Biden’s desk.

Still, supporters of both parties were angered by the ICC’s insinuation that the leaders of Israel, a close democratic ally, and Hamas, a terrorist group, had committed equivalent crimes. They said passage of the bill, even if only by the House, would send an important message to the world that Washington firmly supports Israel’s right to self-defense.

“The idea that they would issue an arrest warrant for the Prime Minister of Israel, Minister of Defense of Israel at a time when they are fighting for the existence of their nation against the evil of Hamas as a representative of Iran, is unfair to us.” . House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday. “And as I said a few weeks ago, the ICC must be punished for this action.”

The bill’s Democratic opponents had different ideas. Virtually all of them support Israel and its right to a strong defense in a hostile region. But they are also fierce critics of the conservative Netanyahu and his far-right coalition government, which has rejected Biden’s calls for a ceasefire, ignored the administration’s red-line warnings about the Rafah invasion and opposes the solution. of two states defended by the White House.

Furthermore, Israel’s military operations have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, leading to accusations that Netanyahu did too little to limit civilian casualties – the same accusation that led the ICC’s top prosecutor to recommend allegations of war crimes against the Israelis. .

“I oppose this resolution because we need the ICC. Over the past 241 days, thousands, thousands have been victims of unimaginable atrocities, and Netanyahu’s violations of international law have threatened the peace of the world,” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said on the House floor Tuesday. . “I am determined to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes.”

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), would impose financial and travel sanctions on ICC employees. It includes a provision that gives the president unilateral authority to end sanctions if the ICC ceases to engage in efforts to investigate or arrest individuals from the United States or its allies, or if the court has permanently terminated any investigation into protected individuals.

The project is largely symbolic. The United States does not recognize the ICC and does not consider Americans to be under its jurisdiction. But some Democrats said they opposed the GOP law because it posed a risk of sanctioning some U.S. allies who ratified the ICC charter.

“This would sanction the leaders of some of our strongest allies: the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Japan. This is dangerous,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “This could sanction some American companies that could provide software and technology to [the court]. It’s so broad that it becomes very dangerous for us.”

Republican leadership staged a vote on the legislation — which only has GOP cosponsors — after bipartisan negotiations on a sanctions bill failed. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has been talking with his Democratic counterparts in the House and Senate about legislative ways to penalize the ICC.

McCaul said he wants the final product to be bipartisan and have a strong chance of becoming law, emphasizing the importance of showing deterrence to ICC judges as they weigh whether to grant the requested arrest warrants.

Late last week, however, the White House announced that the administration was opposed to the sanctions – despite its criticism of the ICC measure – a position that Johnson said dashed hopes for a bipartisan product.

“I worked on it all weekend. I worked on it until Sunday, late Sunday, in an effort to make it bipartisan. And I think members of the House and Senate were interested in doing so,” Johnson said Tuesday.

“But the White House gave the red light and said it would not support sanctions, which was unfair to us. And I think that’s why it broke,” she added. “But we had to move, we couldn’t wait any longer, we need to send this message.”

The pressure to sanction the ICC comes after the court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, a British human rights lawyer, recommended charges against several Hamas leaders for their role in the October 7 massacre, and against Netanyahu and his minister of Defense for its response to these attacks. attacks. Among the accusations against Israeli leaders are: using hunger as a weapon of war and intentionally targeting civilians.

ICC judges will now decide whether to grant the requested warrants.

The push to sanction the ICC has emerged as the latest flashpoint in long-running tensions in the Democratic Party over Israel, with staunchly pro-Israel Democrats at odds with pro-Palestinian liberals who are outraged by the rising number of humanitarian deaths in the Gaza Strip. .

These differences have become more pronounced since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, and are expected to intensify in the coming weeks as congressional leaders plan to welcome Netanyahu to the Capitol to deliver a speech.

Congress’ four top leaders officially invited Netanyahu on Friday to deliver a speech at a joint meeting of Congress, an opportunity he accepted over the weekend. It is not yet clear when the speech will take place.