US House Passes bills to Sanction ICC Officials over The Arrest warrants of Israeli Officials
The Republican-dominated US House of Representatives approved a bill on Tuesday to punish the International Criminal Court (ICC), in a largely symbolic and highly significant way. This decision was taken on the heels of the ICC prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli personalities. The legislation, however, will not pass as the Senate, controlled by Democrats, will not consider it for a vote.
The bill’s numerous provisions were passed with the significant support of both Democrats and Republicans, with 247 affirmative votes to 155 negative votes. In particular, 42 supporting Democrats were noted along with Republicans. Mr. Biden has been quite unpredictable regarding the ICC sanctions; he receives pressures from different directions, mainly from human rights organizations and Democratic members of parliament.
On May 6, in a show of intent to engage Congress on an ICC sanctions bill, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. HL:s This suggestion was viewed positively by the Israeli government because the ICC chief prosecutor had demanded that arrest warrants be issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, together with several Hamas officials.
However, within the following week, the White House denied this position, saying it would not recognize or endorse the sanctions against the ICC. After the House vote, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller restated the administration’s stance against the bill. As the main attempt, Miller emphasized that the US does not support how the ICC prosecutor acted. However, she also stressed that sanctions are not welcomed when investigations based on the issues in question are conducted within Israel.
The new bill, which is to be enacted, intends to inflict very harsh penalties and ban all visas for individuals and judges in the ICC and even their relatives. Meeks, a Democratic lawmaker and chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, dismissed the actions of the ICC, saying the bill would slow down the Court and hence have a chopping effect on it.
Even though it has very little chance of becoming law, the bill just passed is a significant legislative achievement as it was passed with the bipartisan support of 42 pro-Israel Democrats. The two are Ruben Gallego, the Democrat running for the Senate seat in Arizona, and Elissa Slotkin, the Democrat running for Senate Seat in Michigan. Their willingness to provide the bill with a green light even when their Commander-in-Chief opposes the bill could be due to a view on political reality that helps underline their support for a key foreign policy ally of the US in the production of closer contests.
Therefore, the Biden administration’s approach to ICC sanctions can be considered a compelling example of the relatively cautious approach the White House has been willing to embrace in recent months, trying to excessively focus on friendly nations and maintain the balance in relations with different countries. Thus, supporting Israel, which does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, the administration is also wary of the potential consequences of the sanctions against the international organization on a global level. This tension brings out the politics at work in the US-Israel relationship and the division between the two major factions in the Democratic Party on the best way to manage the relationship.
The recent passing of the ICC sanction by the House of Representatives, a measure that is very unlikely to become law, is indicative of the fact that the nature of American Bureaucracy continues to debate over how to handle international legal interventions against Israeli officials. Regardless, the mild approval of the legislation, its massive bipartisan margin, and the support of critical Democratic members prove that the politicians strategized it because the Biden administration still needs to pass through domestic and international challenges regarding its foreign policy agenda.
