Gaza, the US considers sanctions against members of the Hague Criminal Court

ROME – Prime Minister Netanyahu is currently grappling with the possibility that the International Criminal Court (ICC) will issue an arrest warrant against him, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi for possible crimes of war, crimes against humanity and genocide crimes in Gaza, […]

ROME – Prime Minister Netanyahu is currently grappling with the possibility that the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant against him, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi for possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide in Gaza, i.e. the types of crimes that the ICC has the mandate to investigate.
The Axios newspaper reports, citing two senior Israeli officials, that last SundayNetanyahu phoned President Joe Biden to ask him to help him stop the judicial action of the Court of The Hague. Again, Axios reports that members of Congress from both American parties are considering measures to take against the ICC: the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul said that a bill could be introduced to sanction the Court’s officials criminal company based in the Netherlands. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this,” he said.

Such arrest warrants would be a “shameful, unfounded and illegitimate” act according to House Speaker Mike Johnson, convinced that “they could directly undermine the national security interests of the United States: if unchallenged by the Biden administration, the International Criminal Court could assume unprecedented power to issue arrest warrants against American political leaders, American diplomats, and American military personnel, thereby endangering our country’s sovereign authority.”

To date, the United States has discouraged the ICC from continuing its action, despitethe International Court of Justice (ICJ) having deemed plausible the accusations of genocide in Gaza presented by South Africa against Israel, claiming that any arrest warrants will “scuttle ceasefire talks”. The United States and Israel are among the countries – as with Russia, China and Sudan – that do not recognize the ICC and have not ratified the Rome Statute that established it.