US Republican leader threatens ICC chief with sanctions over Israel

The International Criminal Court and its chief prosecutor Karim Khan should be sanctioned by the US if they continue to seek the arrest of Israeli leaders, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said.

Khan announced in May that he was looking to press charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders, over “crimes against humanity” in Gaza.

“If the ICC and its prosecutor do not reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis,” Thune said on Monday evening.

“If Majority Leader [Chuck] Schumer does not act, the Senate Republican majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this – and other supportive legislation – a top priority in the next Congress,” he added.

Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, won the internal election for Senate majority leader last week, despite criticism from allies of President-elect Donald Trump that he was too close to the old establishment.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, currently presides over the Senate in which his party has a slim majority. The chamber is due to become Republican-led when the newly elected senators are seated in January.

The Republican-led House of Representatives passed a bill that would cancel US visas and place financial restrictions on any ICC officials prosecuting US “allies.” It passed by a vote of 247-155, with 42 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote in favor. President Joe Biden, however, said he was “strongly opposed” to it.

According to a law that came into effect in 2002, the US president is authorized to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of” the ICC. It has been informally known as ‘The Hague Invasion Act’.

The ICC has not yet acted on Khan’s request. Israel has killed all three Hamas leaders in question since then, while Netanyahu fired Gallant last month.