The Counterproductive Impact of a New Republican Effort to Punish the ICC

New GOP-sponsored legislation against the International Criminal Court would undermine American interests

Last Thursday, the Republican-led House of Representatives (with some Democratic support) passed a bill sanctioning the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and others over the ICC’s pursuit of criminal charges against Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant regarding their actions in Gaza.

Here is how the New York Times described the measure:

The House on Thursday passed legislation that would impose sanctions on officials at the International Criminal Court, making a frontal assault on the tribunal in a rebuke of its move to charge top Israeli leaders with war crimes for their offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

The bill instructs the president to freeze property assets and deny visas to any foreigners who materially or financially contributed to the court’s efforts to “investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute a protected person.” Protected persons are defined as all current and former military and government officials of the United States and allies that have not consented to the court’s jurisdiction, such as Israel.

There are 123 state parties to the International Criminal Court—countries that signed and ratified the treaty establishing the court over 20 years ago. Among them are nations with which the United States has tepid relations, but the majority are America’s closest international allies. This includes nearly all of Europe, nearly all NATO members, nearly all of the United States' 18 “major non-NATO allies,” and all of the so-called Five Eyes partners (the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), with which the U.S. maintains an exceptionally close and complex intelligence-sharing relationship.

The way this bill is constructed suggests that the incoming Trump administration could sanction these key allies simply for being members of the ICC.

Regardless of whether you believe the ICC should have pursued senior Israeli and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the first place, this legislation remains seriously misguided and potentially harmful to far more consequential American interests.

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