Republicans advance sanctions on International Criminal Court

House Republicans on Monday passed a bill to punish the International Criminal Court (ICC) after its top prosecutor recommended war crimes charges against Israeli leaders during the war against Hamas.

The House Rules Committee voted 9-3 along strictly partisan lines to send the bill to the full House to impose sanctions on ICC officials. The House is expected to pass the bill later this week and send it to the Senate, where Democratic leaders are expected to ignore the measure.

The effort was originally planned as a bipartisan effort, as congressional leaders from both parties sought to demonstrate Washington’s support for Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has been in discussions with Democrats in both houses and the White House about how to approach the court, and he stressed that he wants a bill that has a chance of becoming law to act as a deterrent while the ICC judges consider whether to issue a warrant.

But the White House hit a snag in those plans last week, when spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre announced that while the administration supports some sort of punitive response to the proposed ICC charges, it does not support imposing sanctions on the International Court of Justice, an announcement that quickly thwarted McCaul’s efforts to create a bipartisan penalty.

“We fundamentally reject the ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders,” Jean-Pierre said, “but we believe that ICC sanctions are neither an effective nor appropriate way forward.”

The government strengthened its stance, Statement of administrative policy On Monday afternoon, the committee wrote that it “strongly opposes” the bill, but stopped short of explicitly threatening a veto if the bill reaches President Biden’s desk.

“There are more effective ways to defend Israel, uphold U.S. positions at the ICC, and promote international justice and accountability, and the Administration stands ready to work with Congress on those options,” the statement said.

But given that the United States has never ratified the ICC’s Charter, does not believe that American citizens are subject to the ICC’s jurisdiction, and does not fund the court’s activities, it is unclear what other punitive options the White House is considering.

House Republican leaders are not willing to wait for the administration to come up with an alternative, instead moving forward with a partisan sanctions bill introduced last month by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) in response to reports that the ICC was considering moves to indict Israeli leaders for their actions in the Hamas war.

Roy’s bill, which has more than 60 Republican co-sponsors, would impose sanctions on ICC officials involved in any efforts to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute protectorates of the U.S. and its allies. Sanctions could include blocking U.S. asset transactions, banning individuals from entering the U.S., and revoking visas.

The measure would give the president the authority to unilaterally lift sanctions if the ICC ceases efforts to investigate or arrest Americans or their allies, or permanently ends an investigation into a protected person.

The bill is expected to easily pass the House of Representatives, with the support of nearly all Republicans and staunch pro-Israel Democrats. But Biden’s veto of the sanctions plan ensures opposition from Democratic leaders in Congress, most of whom are expected to vote against the bill when it arrives on the floor later this week.

“This is a bad bill,” Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said Monday. “The International Criminal Court is an important institution, and people who care about human rights would certainly agree with this assessment. And I don’t think it’s in America’s moral or strategic interest to attack a court that’s trying to do its job.”

“This bill makes a mockery of the rules-based international order that America helped build,” he added.