US: House of Republicans unite to sanction ICC, safeguard Israel from war crime allegations

In a significant move the Republican led US House of Representatives has passed a legislation that seeks to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC). These bills and the subsequent sanctions are in response to the ICC prosecutors’ decisions to pursue arrest warrants for Israeli officials related to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Titled the US House’s illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, an international media agency reported that the contentious votes ended with the 247 lawmakers in favour and 155 against. This includes support from 42 democrats. Notably, none of the republicans voted nay although two opted to vote present rather than aye.

In a statement as reported by the international media agencies Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “Today’s vote draws a line in the sand for lawless action by the ICC officials. The US firmly stands with Israel and refuses to allow international bureaucrats to baselessly issue arrest warrants to Israeli leadership for false crimes,” he added.

While the bill is not expected to become a law, as per the report, the it underscores strong backing for Israel in Congress amidst international criticism of its Gaza campaign.  Last month, the White House had also condemned the ICC decision to seek these arrest warrants. It is unlikely that to take up a measure for a vote in the Senate, which has a narrow democratic majority.

However, if it were to pass, the legislation would impose sanctions on individuals involved in ICC prosecutions of Americans or citizens of the US allies, who aren’t the members of the ICC, such as Israel. These sanctions would include barring entry to the US revoking visas and restricting them from property transactions in the nation.

Recently, ICC prosecutors Karim Khan said that after more than seven months into the conflict in Gaza, there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence chief Yoav Gallant bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Khan also sought to penalise three Hamas leaders for the same. Netanyahu however, called the ICC decision absurd and argued that it targets all of Israel. The Gaza conflict escalated dramatically last October when Israel launched an extensive ground and aerial operations in Gaza to dismantle Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, which left around 1200 people dead and over 250 taken as hostages according to Israeli figures.

Meanwhile according to local health authorities, the Israeli military retaliatory campaign has resulted in over 36,000 deaths in densely populated Gaza. They also report that thousands of bodies remain buried under rubble.