The United States House of Representatives has taken a significant step in opposing the International Criminal Court (ICC) by passing the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act. This bill, aimed at sanctioning the ICC, comes as a direct response to the court’s controversial issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. The legislation, passed on January 9 with a 243 to 140 vote, signals Washington’s unequivocal stance against what many lawmakers perceive as the ICC’s overreach.

In November 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, accusing them of committing war crimes in Gaza. These charges, which also targeted three senior Hamas members, stemmed from the court’s investigation into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ICC’s actions were met with strong resistance from the Israeli government, which dismissed the accusations as baseless and politically motivated. “Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions and charges against it by the international criminal court, which is a biased and discriminatory political body,” Netanyahu said in a statement following the warrants.

The newly passed bill, if enacted into law, would impose sanctions on ICC officials and entities supporting the court’s investigations, arrests, and detentions of Americans and citizens of allied countries. Representative Brian Mast, chair of the House Foreign Affairs........

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