The House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation that would impose sanctions on officials at the International Criminal Court, a frontal attack on the court in a rebuke of its move to indict top Israeli leaders for war crimes over its offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
The bill directs the president to freeze assets and deny visas to any alien who has 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 allies who have not consented to the court’s jurisdiction, such as Israel.
The measure is one of several that Republicans pushed through the House of Representatives last year but died in the Democratic-led Senate, and are now all but certain to pass now that Republicans control both houses of Congress and Mr. Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Last year, a similar measures have attracted bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, but still faced resistance from many Democrats, who joined Republicans in criticizing the ICC’s move to prosecute Israeli leaders, but called the sanctions too broad and ineffective. With the Republicans now in power, the obstacles to passing the bill appear to have disappeared.
“The rogue actions of the ICC only enable terrorists who want to wipe Israel off the map and cannot be allowed to go unchecked,” Sen. John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said on the floor this week. “I promised in November that if Leader Schumer didn’t bring up the ICC sanctions bill, the Republicans would. And we will soon fulfill that promise and vote to support our ally Israel.”
The 243-140 House vote, in which 45 Democrats joined all Republicans who supported the bill, reflected significant mutual aggravation among lawmakers over the court’s decision to prosecute Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity along with leaders of Hamas, whose deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 started a bloody backlash in Gaza Strip.
“America is passing this law because a kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally,” said Rep. Brian Mast, Republican of Florida and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He accused the court of anti-Semitism, trying to prevent the Israeli military from being successful and thwarting efforts to free Israeli and American hostages held by Hamas.
“This bill sends an incredibly important message to the entire world,” added Mr. Mast. “Do not stand in the way of America or our allies trying to bring our people home. You will not be shown mercy, and again, you will certainly not be welcome on American soil.”
The United States has sent arms shipments to Israel worth billions of dollars since the start of the armed conflict, despite international condemnation of the attack on Gaza and accusations by human rights groups that its actions there amount to genocide. Efforts to broker a ceasefire have eluded the Biden administration. Mr. Trump said this week that if Hamas does not release the Israeli hostages his inauguration“all hell will break loose in the Middle East.”
Republicans in Congress have been trying to derail the court since May, when its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that he was looking for warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza; Ismail Haniyeh, its head based in Qatar; and Muhammad Deif, its top military commander. The House first voted on the bill on sanctions for court officials and their associates just two weeks later.
In November the court issued orders for Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Gallant and Mr. Deif for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Until that moment, it was confirmed that Mr. Sinwara and Mr. Haniyeh was killed by Israeli forces. Israel has too claimed to have killed Mr. Deif.
Proponents of the law argued that the sanctions were a necessary rebuke to the court’s move to equate Israeli leaders with the top of terrorist groups like Hamas. They also insisted that the move was an important 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 critical not only to our friendship with our ally Israel, but to our own national security, protecting our men and women in uniform,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who authored the bill. floor. He argued that if the United States failed to impose sanctions on the court, American soldiers could be targeted for their conduct in foreign conflicts.
ICC, added Mr. Roy, “should have no authority over our people, no authority over the prime minister of Israel.”
Most Democrats opposed the bill, arguing that it tried to punish too many people for the decision.
“Republicans want to sanction the ICC simply because they don’t want the rules to apply to everyone,” said Representative 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 the court. The Palestinian territories did so in 2015, several 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 establishment of the criminal court in 1998. Although both countries later became signatories to its founding document, the Rome Statute, neither country ratified it.
