The Home on Thursday handed laws to sanction officers with the Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC), pushing again towards the court docket’s choice to challenge arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former protection minister for his or her actions throughout Israel’s battle towards Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
The laws reached the bulk threshold by midafternoon on Thursday, with dozens of Democrats becoming a member of Republicans, however the vote was left open as lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill from former President Carter’s funeral.
Home Overseas Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) made the ICC invoice, which was launched Friday, a precedence as quickly because the 119th Congress kicked off.
A GOP congressional aide instructed The Hill earlier this week that Mast, who co-sponsored the invoice together with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), wished to ship a message early that the U.S. would stand by Israel.
“A kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally, Israel, which is not only responding to an enemy which conducted a genocide,” Mast stated on the Home flooring on Thursday forward of the vote, “but an enemy who still holds 100 hostages.”
The invoice had help from not simply Republicans but additionally centrist Democrats who view the ICC as having no authorized jurisdiction to pursue warrants towards high Israeli officers. They are saying the court docket is drawing unfair comparisons between Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
“The ICC has set a precedent for criminalizing self-defense: any country daring to defend itself against an enemy that exploits civilians as human shields will face persecution posing as prosecution,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) posted on the social platform X forward of the vote.
“Not only did Hamas wage war on Israel, causing the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, it carefully constructed a battlefield designed to maximize the loss of civilian life. None of that context seems to matter to the kangaroo court of the ICC, which cannot let facts get in the way of its ideological crusade against the Jewish State.”
The invoice, known as the Illegitimate Courtroom Counteraction Act, requires sanctions on any officers with the court docket, or entities supporting the court docket, over makes an attempt “to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute” a U.S. citizen or citizen of an allied nation that’s not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the court docket and the international locations over which it holds jurisdiction.
The invoice, which might take impact 60 days after enactment, applies to the 32-member Western safety alliance NATO and 19 main non-NATO international locations, together with allies resembling Israel.
In November, the ICC revealed arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Protection Minister Yoav Gallant, together with Mohammed Deif, the Hamas commander accountable for the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel wherein the group killed some 1,200 folks and took round 250 hostages. Israel claimed to have killed Deif, however Hamas has by no means confirmed his dying.
ICC prosecutors introduced they had been looking for arrest warrants final spring, accusing each Hamas and Israel of battle crimes. Greater than 46,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza for the reason that battle started, and Israel has additionally confronted accusations of blocking humanitarian help efforts. A particular committee with the United Nations concluded in November that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide, together with utilizing hunger as a weapon of battle.
The Biden administration has rejected characterizations of genocide, but it surely stated in a Could report that Israel’s use of U.S. arms probably violated worldwide regulation.
Each the U.S. and Israel aren’t get together to the ICC and argue they aren’t topic to the court docket’s jurisdiction. However within the November launch saying the warrants, ICC judges stated the court docket has jurisdiction as a result of the state of Palestine is a celebration. The warrants imply Netanyahu and Gallant can’t journey to international locations get together to the ICC with out danger of arrest.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) introduced Tuesday his intention to carry the invoice to the ground, saying Congress would put “ICC prosecutor Karim Khan back in his place.”
“He does not have jurisdiction over Israel or the United States, and it is outrageous that they’re issuing arrest warrants,” Johnson stated. “The ICC is actually equating Israel and Hamas, even as Hamas still holds Israelis and Americans hostage.”
Some Democrats pushed again towards the invoice. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) slammed Republicans for prioritizing sanctioning the ICC amid financial challenges and urgent disasters just like the wildfires in California.
“All those challenges, and this is what the out-of-touch elitist billionaire Republican Party wants to waste time on,” he stated.
McGovern took a agency stand on the ground, debating with Republicans on the measure, which he stated wouldn’t free the hostages and would hamper the ICC in working the world over the place human rights violations are dedicated.
He stated the GOP has not criticized the ICC for warrants towards Hamas or towards Russian President Vladimir Putin. And he accused Republicans of transferring towards the court docket as a result of they “don’t want the rules to apply to everyone.”
Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) has dedicated to bringing the laws to the ground within the Senate, however it’s more likely to require 60 votes to beat the filibuster.
“In November, I promised that if Leader Schumer wouldn’t bring the ICC sanctions bill to the floor, Republicans would, and we’ll soon fulfill that promise and have a vote to support our ally Israel,” Thune stated on the Senate flooring on Wednesday, referring to Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer (N.Y.).
Whereas Schumer and the White Home opposed bringing the ICC laws to the ground in the course of the earlier Congress, then-Senate Overseas Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) stated he was searching for bipartisan settlement on an ICC sanctions invoice.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), now the rating member of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, instructed Jewish Insider on Tuesday that Democrats are “looking at whether there’s an opportunity to offer an alternative” to the present ICC laws.
The beforehand handed ICC laws gained help from some Home Democrats now within the Senate, together with Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who each voted in favor of the measure in September as members of the Home.
“I tend to vote consistently,” Slotkin instructed Jewish Insider when requested a few Senate vote.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) was a “no” vote when serving within the Home, as was Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.).
Former Home lawmaker and now-Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) was not current for the vote in September.
