Middle East Monitor / January 9, 2025
On the day the US honours former President Jimmy Carter, a key figure in the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the US House of Representatives passed an AIPAC-backed bill to sanction the ICC. In a 243-140 vote, the ‘Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act’ imposes sanctions on the ICC and key figures within it over its arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his ex-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, fuelling controversy over US priorities and international justice.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in protest of its arrest warrant for Israeli officials, Anadolu Agency reports.
The bill, which was introduced last Friday as soon as the 119th Congress began, passed in a 243-140 vote.
The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act imposes sanctions on those who aid efforts by the ICC to prosecute Americans or Israelis.
The ICC issued arrest warrants in November for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
US Congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, criticised the voting.
“What’s their top priority the first week of the new Congress? Lowering costs? Addressing the housing crisis? No, it’s sanctioning the International Criminal Court to protect genocidal maniac (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu so he can continue the genocide in Gaza,” Tlaib wrote on X.
Rep. Jim McGovern criticised Republicans for prioritising sanctioning the ICC amid the wildfires in the state of California.
“Of all the ways that Republicans have shown this country how messed up and backwards their priorities are, I have to say that this bill that we debating today to sanction the International Criminal Court, the ICC, this really takes the cake,” McGovern said from the House floor.
Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, pledged to bring the legislation to the Senate floor.
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 US 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 US travel impeded.
ICC watchers said the new sanctions would make it possible to target individuals assisting the work of the Court.
“The bill is also broad because anyone who provides support to the Court on any case exposes themselves to sanctions,” Milena Sterio, international law expert at Cleveland State University, told Reuters.
The Israeli occupation army has continued a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 46,000 victims, mostly women and children, since 7 October, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
