House Republicans Drafting Legislation to Sanction ICC Over Israel: Report

House Republicans, standing with their Senate GOP colleagues in their support of Israel, are reportedly preparing a bill similar to the Senate bill authored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) that would sanction the International Criminal Court if it issues arrest warrants against Israel officials over Israel’s war effort against Hamas.

According to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX), the House is preparing a companion bill. The Biden administration revoked a Trump administration executive order that would have held the ICC accountable for such behavior.

On April 29, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) released a statement in  which he said:

It is disgraceful that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is reportedly planning to issue baseless and illegitimate arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials. Such a lawless action by the ICC would directly undermine U.S. national security interests. If unchallenged by the Biden administration, the ICC could create and assume unprecedented power to issue arrest warrants against American political leaders, American diplomats, and American military personnel, thereby endangering our country’s sovereign authority. Instead of wrongly targeting Israel, the ICC should pursue charges against Iran and its terror proxies, including Hamas, for engaging in horrific war crimes. The Biden Administration must immediately and unequivocally demand that the ICC stand down and the U.S. should use every available tool to prevent such an abomination.

In early February, Cotton introduced a bill with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) to sanction officials and associates of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who investigate or prosecute U.S. troops and officials and allies who do not recognize the authority of the ICC, such as Israel.

On April 24, Cotton and 10 other GOP senators sent a letter to the ICC warning them that if they issued international arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, “We will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States.”

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The letter noted, “Issuing arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel would not only be unjustified, it would expose your organization’s hypocrisy and double standards. Your office has not issued arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or any other Iranian official, Syrian President Bashar al Assad or any other Syrian official, or Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh or any other Hamas official. Nor have you issued an arrest warrant for the genocidal General Secretary of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, or any other Chinese official.”

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