House Republicans are eyeing a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court because its chief prosecutor wants arrest warrants for top Israeli officials over their actions in the war against Hamas.
House Republicans are eyeing a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court because its chief prosecutor wants arrest warrants for top Israeli officials over their actions in the war against Hamas.
Senate Democrats, while largely condemning the International Criminal Court’s move, are cool to the idea.
“Right now I’m focusing on what we can do through our public advocacy,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, told The Washington Times.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders — Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — that he accuses of committing war crimes.
The request for warrants must still be considered by a pretrial panel of three judges, so the prosecutor’s decision is not yet final. But some members of Congress — who overwhelmingly took issue with the ICC equating Israel’s actions with Hamas terrorists whose Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state started the war — want to take preemptive action before warrants could be issued.
“The ICC has no business going after anybody in any country that is a democracy with an independent judiciary,” Sen. James E. Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Times.
Mr. Risch of Idaho said he is drafting legislation to sanction the ICC to prevent action against Israeli officials but also to restore some checks and balances that the U.S. had previously placed on the court.
“We had sanctions in place under Trump. Biden took the sanctions down. We want to reestablish those sanctions,” he said. “Those sanctions had to do with the ICCs work against Americans in Afghanistan. We’re going to reinstate that, plus go after them for what they’re doing as far as Israel is concerned.”
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Benjamin L. Cardin said there is general agreement among lawmakers and President Biden that the ICC decision was inappropriate but that he wants to talk to administration officials about the best way to respond.
