US House votes to advance bill to sanction ICC over Israel arrest warrants

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to pass a bill aimed at sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) in retaliation for its arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The bill, named the "Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act," passed the House with an overwhelming 243 to 140 vote, demonstrating strong U.S. Congressional support for Israel.

The bill proposes sanctions on any foreigner who assists the ICC in investigating, detaining, or prosecuting U.S. citizens or citizens of allied nations that do not recognize the court's jurisdiction. Sanctions include freezing assets and denying visas to any foreigner who provides material or financial contributions to the court's work. Neither the U.S. nor Israel are parties to the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

Speaking before Thursday's vote, House Foreign Affairs Committee Republican Chairman Brian Mast said, "The United States is passing this law because an illegitimate court is trying to arrest the prime minister of our great ally Israel." The vote was one of the first since the new Congress was sworn in, highlighting the strong support of President-elect Donald Trump's Republican colleagues for the Israeli government, despite its ongoing war in Gaza. The conflict has resulted in the deaths of more than 46,000 Palestinians, many of whom are women and children, since it began in October 2023.

The ICC prosecutor issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant last May, after UN experts condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza as "fitting the characteristics of genocide." In response, U.S. lawmakers threatened retaliation against the ICC. Dozens of human rights organizations urged outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden in a May letter to reject calls for punitive action. These organizations wrote at the time, “Acting on these calls would severely undermine the interests of victims everywhere, and the ability of the U.S. government to champion human rights and justice.”

This week, another group of human rights organizations issued another letter ahead of Thursday’s vote, condemning the House bill as an attack on an "independent judicial institution." They wrote that sanctioning the court would "jeopardize the ability of desperate victims in all court investigations to achieve justice, undermine the credibility of sanction tools elsewhere, and put the U.S. at odds with its closest allies." The letter warned that imposing "asset freezes and entry restrictions" on ICC allies would leave the U.S. "bearing the stigma of standing on the side of impunity rather than justice."

Despite this, U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has pledged to quickly consider the bill so that Trump can sign it into law after his inauguration on January 20. During his first term in 2020, Trump sanctioned senior leaders of the ICC for investigating U.S. crimes in Afghanistan and Israeli crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories. President Biden later rescinded those sanctions. The ICC, headquartered in The Hague, is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and crimes of aggression.

The State of Palestine has been a member of the court since 2015, and the court first announced an investigation into crimes committed by Israeli and Hamas officials there in 2019. While Israel is not a party to the ICC, the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of member states, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators. The U.S. has sometimes supported the court as well, for example, when the ICC chief prosecutor sought an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Russia, like Israel and the U.S., is not a member of the court.

Prosecutor Karim Khan, who issued the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, has stated that his decision is in line with the court's practice in all its cases and said that the warrants could deter ongoing crimes.