Republican Senators Threaten International Criminal Court With ‘Severe Sanctions’: ‘Target Israel and We Will Target You’
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Twelve Republican senators signed a letter threatening members of the International Criminal Court with “severe sanctions” and a ban from the United States after it was reported that the ICC was preparing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The letter – which was signed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), among others – warned ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan that any attempts to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu or other Israeli officials would “result in severe sanctions” against both Khan and the ICC as a whole.
“By issuing warrants, you would be calling into question the legitimacy of Israel’s laws, legal system, and democratic form of government,” the letter claimed, before protesting that the ICC had not issued similar arrest warrants for Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The senators continued:
Neither Israel nor the United States are members of the ICC and are therefore outside of your organization’s supposed jurisdiction. If you issue a warrant for the arrest of the Israeli leadership, we will interpret this not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States. Our country demonstrated in the American Service-Members’ Protection Act the lengths to which we will go to protect that sovereignty.
The United States will not tolerate politicized attacks by the ICC on our allies. Target Israel and we will target you. If you move forward with the measures indicated in the report, we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned.
As noted by Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan, who published the letter in full on Monday, the American Service-Members’ Protection Act threateningly cited by the senators was signed into law by former President George W. Bush in 2002 and “has since become widely known as ‘The Hague Invasion Act’ because it authorizes the U.S. president ‘to use all means necessary and appropriate’ to bring about the release not just of U.S. persons but also allies who are imprisoned or detained by the ICC.”
The letter was signed by McConnell, Rubio, and Scott, along with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC), Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN).
On Friday, the ICC demanded an end to “intimidation” against the court, seemingly in response to the senators’ letter, which was dated April 24.
“The Office insists that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials cease immediately,” the Court declared in a statement.
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