House Republicans consider taking action against the ICC for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials

House GOP leaders are weighing “all options” in response to the International Criminal Court seeking to file arrest warrant applications for senior Israeli officials such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a move that many lawmakers and even President Joe Biden have called “outrageous.”

Early Monday, the ICC announced it was pursuing warrants for the arrests of Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as the following senior Hamas leaders: Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, Mohammed Deif, the head of the military, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of its political bureau.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called the ICC’s actions “baseless and illegitimate,” echoing many fellow Republicans and Democrats who condemned the ICC for comparing the actions committed by Hamas to those taken by Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on the Jewish state.

“The ICC has no authority over Israel or the United States, and today’s baseless and illegitimate decision should face global condemnation,” Johnson said. “International bureaucrats cannot be allowed to use lawfare to usurp the authority of democratic nations that maintain the rule of law.”

“Israel is fighting a just war for survival, and the ICC is attempting to equate Israeli officials to the evil terrorists who perpetrated the October 7th massacre,” the speaker continued.

Johnson said the ICC’s decision to seek arrest warrants can be blamed on the Biden administration’s “pressure campaign” against Israel and its “outlandish State Department investigations.”

“In the absence of leadership from the White House, Congress is reviewing all options, including sanctions, to punish the ICC and ensure its leadership faces consequences if they proceed,” the speaker said. “If the ICC is allowed to threaten Israeli leaders, ours could be next.”

Johnson is the latest lawmaker to criticize the move by the ICC. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said shortly after the ICC’s announcement that he would work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle “in both chambers to levy damning sanctions against the ICC.”

Some House Republicans, such as Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), are calling on Congress to pass a bill that would sanction any foreign person engaged in an effort by the ICC to investigate or arrest a U.S. citizen or an official from an allied U.S. country.

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“The ICC is an illegitimate court that equivocates a peaceful nation protecting its right to exist with radical terror groups that commit genocide,” Stefanik said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “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.”

Several pro-Israel House Democrats are blasting the ICC for moving forward with arrest warrant applications, as well. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), one of the most vocal supporters of Israel in Congress, described the ICC’s decision as “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,” while Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) called it “extreme judicial overreach.”