House passes ICC sanctions bill; GOP Senate leader promises to bring it to floor

The House on Thursday passed legislation to sanction officials with the International Criminal Court (ICC), pushing back against the court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for their actions during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

The legislation reached the majority threshold by midafternoon on Thursday, with dozens of Democrats joining Republicans, but the vote was left open as lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill from former President Carter's funeral. 

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) made the ICC bill, which was introduced Friday, a priority as soon as the 119th Congress kicked off. 

A GOP congressional aide told The Hill earlier this week that Mast, who co-sponsored the bill along with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), wanted to send a message early that the U.S. would stand by Israel.

“A kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally, Israel, which is not only responding to an enemy which conducted a genocide,” Mast said on the House floor on Thursday ahead of the vote, “but an enemy who still holds 100 hostages.”

The bill had support from not just Republicans but also centrist Democrats who view the ICC as having no legal jurisdiction to pursue warrants against top Israeli officials. They say the court is drawing unfair comparisons between Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

“The ICC has set a precedent for criminalizing self-defense: any country daring to defend itself against an enemy that exploits civilians as human shields will face persecution posing as prosecution,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) posted on the social platform X ahead of the vote.  

“Not only did Hamas wage war on Israel, causing the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, it carefully constructed a battlefield designed to maximize the loss of civilian life. None of that context seems to matter to the kangaroo court of the ICC, which cannot let facts get in the way of its ideological crusade against the Jewish State.”

The bill, called the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, calls for sanctions on any officials with the court, or entities supporting the court, over attempts “to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute” a U.S. citizen or citizen of an allied country that is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the court and the countries over which it holds jurisdiction. 

The bill, which would take effect 60 days after enactment, applies to the 32-member Western security alliance NATO and 19 major non-NATO countries, including allies such as Israel. 

In November, the ICC published arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with Mohammed Deif, the Hamas commander responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in which the group killed some 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. Israel claimed to have killed Deif, but Hamas has never confirmed his death.

ICC prosecutors announced they were seeking arrest warrants last spring, accusing both Hamas and Israel of war crimes. More than 46,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the war began, and Israel has also faced accusations of blocking humanitarian aid efforts. A special committee with the United Nations concluded in November that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide, including using starvation as a weapon of war. 

The Biden administration has rejected characterizations of genocide, but it said in a May report that Israel’s use of U.S. arms likely violated international law. 

Both the U.S. and Israel are not party to the ICC and argue they are not subject to the court's jurisdiction. But in the November release announcing the warrants, ICC judges said the court has jurisdiction because the state of Palestine is a party. The warrants mean Netanyahu and Gallant can’t travel to countries party to the ICC without risk of arrest.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Tuesday his intention to bring the bill to the floor, saying Congress would put “ICC prosecutor Karim Khan back in his place.”

“He does not have jurisdiction over Israel or the United States, and it is outrageous that they're issuing arrest warrants,” Johnson said. “The ICC is actually equating Israel and Hamas, even as Hamas still holds Israelis and Americans hostage.”

Some Democrats pushed back against the bill. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) slammed Republicans for prioritizing sanctioning the ICC amid economic challenges and pressing disasters like the wildfires in California.

“All those challenges, and this is what the out-of-touch elitist billionaire Republican Party wants to waste time on,” he said.

McGovern took a firm stand on the floor, debating with Republicans on the measure, which he said would not free the hostages and would hamper the ICC in working across the world where human rights violations are committed.

He said the GOP has not criticized the ICC for warrants against Hamas or against Russian President Vladimir Putin. And he accused Republicans of moving against the court because they “don’t want the rules to apply to everyone.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has committed to bringing the legislation to the floor in the Senate, but it is likely to require 60 votes to overcome the filibuster. 

“In November, I promised that if Leader Schumer wouldn’t bring the ICC sanctions bill to the floor, Republicans would, and we’ll soon fulfill that promise and have a vote to support our ally Israel,” Thune said on the Senate floor on Wednesday, referring to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.).   

While Schumer and the White House opposed bringing the ICC legislation to the floor during the previous Congress, then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said he was looking for bipartisan agreement on an ICC sanctions bill. 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), now the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday that Democrats are “looking at whether there’s an opportunity to offer an alternative” to the current ICC legislation.

The previously passed ICC legislation gained support from some House Democrats now in the Senate, including Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who both voted in favor of the measure in September as members of the House.

“I tend to vote consistently,” Slotkin told Jewish Insider when asked about a Senate vote. 

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) was a “no” vote when serving in the House, as was Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.). 

Former House lawmaker and now-Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) was not present for the vote in September.