House Republican conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik in calling for Congress to sanction the International Criminal Court following its decision on Monday to move forward with an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik called Monday for Congress to sanction the International Criminal Court following prosecutors’ announcement they will seek an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The ICC is an illegitimate court that equivocates a peaceful nation protecting its right to exist with radical terror groups that commit genocide,” Stefanik (R-NY) told The Post.
“Congress must pass my bill with Congressman Chip Roy, the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, that will punish those in the ICC that made this baseless undemocratic decision.”
ICC chief prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan announced the filing of arrest warrant applications against both Netanyahu and Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for allegedly committing crimes against humanity during the Jewish state’s seven-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza.
Earlier this month, Stefanik and Roy (R-Texas), responding to reports that the warrants would be sought, introduced the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act to revoke visas for ICC officials who investigate or prosecute US officials or American allies.
The bill also revokes visas for any other ICC employees or their immediate family members acting on behalf of such an investigation or prosecution.
Israel, like the US, does not officially recognize the ICC’s authority, giving it no jurisdiction over Netanyahu or Gallant, as South Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) pointed out.
“The decision to seek arrest warrants is not law but politics. It is not justice but rather retribution against Israel for the original sin of existing as a Jewish State and the subsequent sin of defending itself amid the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust,” Torres said on X Monday.
“Today’s decision in effect makes it criminal for a state like Israel to defend itself against an enemy shrewd enough to embed itself in a civilian population, as Hamas has done to an extent never seen before in the history of warfare.
