The United States House of Representatives voted on Thursday (9) to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in protest against the arrest warrants issued by the court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Minister of Defense because of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
The vote that ended with a score of 243 votes to 140 was based on the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act”, which provides for the sanction of any foreigner who investigates, arrests, detains or prosecutes citizens of the United States or an allied country – which includes Israel – who were not members of the court.
Forty-five Democrats joined 198 Republicans in supporting the bill. No Republicans voted against it.
“The United States is passing this bill because a kangaroo court is trying to jail the prime minister of our great ally, Israel,” said Rep. Brian Mast, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a House speech before the voting.
The House vote, one of the first since the new US Congress took office last week, highlighted the strong support of US President-elect Donald Trump’s Republican colleagues for the Israeli government now that they control both Houses of Congress.
The ICC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The first Trump administration imposed sanctions on the ICC in 2020 in response to investigations into war crimes in Afghanistan, including allegations of torture by US citizens.
Those sanctions were lifted by President Joe Biden’s administration, although Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in May of last year that he was willing to work with Congress to potentially impose new sanctions on the ICC over the prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
This content was originally published in US Chamber approves ICC sanctions for arrest warrant against Netanyahu on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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