US House Votes to Sanction ICC

On Thursday 9th January, the US House of Representatives voted 243 to 140 in favour of the ‘Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act’ which enables officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to be sanctioned.

This act is a response to the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant over their leading of Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.

Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, welcomed the vote, saying:

“The House of Representatives will not tolerate rogue actors who circumvent
international law in an effort to attack Israel and threaten America.”

A significant factor in the vote was that 45 Democrats joined the Republicans in approving the measure, a small increase in bipartisan support compared to the June vote in the previous Congress.

While some might see this move by the USA as political, there are many genuine concerns that the case put forward by the Prosecutor is deeply flawed.

In August a group of NGOs disputed many of the allegations, including a claim that some areas of the Gaza Strip were experiencing famine, and other areas were close to the same lack of food. That allegation seems to have been based on information provided by the United Nations – information that was corrected shortly afterwards.

The following month, one of those NGOs reported the Prosecutor and his staff to the ICC’s regulators for not complying with their professional obligations, in as much as they failed to provide the Court with information and evidence that exonerates the accused of the charges, including much evidence that emerged after the arrest warrant applications were filed.

This short report was posted by Al Jazeera: