DThe US House of Representatives has voted for a largely symbolic bill that would impose sanctions on members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to the request for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The chairman of the opposition Republican-dominated chamber of Congress, Mike Johnson, said on Tuesday (local time) that the vote showed that the US was firmly on Israel’s side.
It also shows that the United States is opposed to “international bureaucrats issuing baseless arrest warrants against high-ranking Israeli politicians “for false crimes.” It is considered unlikely that the text will be adopted by the Democratic-dominated Senate.
On May 20, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as against the leaders of the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas, for alleged crimes against humanity and alleged war crimes. The United States criticized the ICC chief prosecutor’s actions against Netanyahu and Gallant, and President Biden described the request for arrest warrants as “outrageous.”
If a panel of judges approves the request for arrest warrants, the 124 ICC member states would theoretically be obliged to arrest the wanted men as soon as they are on their territory. This could make it more difficult for Netanyahu and Gallant to travel to the EU, for example. However, Israel’s most important ally, the United States, is not a member of the ICC.