The U.S. House of Representatives voted to sanction the International Criminal Court in protest at its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister over Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
The vote was 243 to 140 in favour of the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act,” which would sanction any foreigner who investigates, arrests, detains or prosecutes U.S. citizens or those of an allied country, including Israel, who are not members of the court.
Forty-five Democrats joined 198 Republicans in backing the bill. No Republican voted against it.
“America is passing this law because a kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally, Israel,” Representative Brian Mast, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a House speech before the vote.
The House vote, one of the first since the new Congress was seated last week, underscored strong support among President-elect Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans for Israel’s government, now that they control both chambers in Congress.
The ICC said it noted the bill with concern and warned it could rob victims of atrocities of justice and hope.
“The court firmly condemns any and all actions intended to threaten the court and its officials, undermine its judicial independence and its mandate and deprive millions of victims of international atrocities across the world of justice and hope,” it said in a statement sent to Reuters.
Trump’s first administration-imposed sanctions on the ICC in 2020 in response to investigations into war crimes in Afghanistan, including allegations of torture by U.S. citizens.
Those sanctions were lifted by President Joe Biden’s administration, though Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in May last year that it was willing to work with Congress to potentially impose new sanctions on the ICC over the prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
Five years ago, then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and other staff had credit cards and bank accounts frozen and U.S. travel impeded.
In December the court’s president, judge Tomoko Akane, told the ICC’s 125 member nations that “these measures would rapidly undermine the Court’s operations in all situations and cases and jeopardize its very existence”.
The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression in member states or by their nationals.