Standing Against the ICC's Baseless Targeting of Israel
The International Criminal Court — an unelected and unaccountable international institution — recently issued arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. These arrest warrants unjustly put democratically-elected Israeli leaders in the same category as Hamas terrorists, who started this brutal war and continue to use their own people as human shields.
The warrants reflect a poisonous anti-Israel sentiment in our international institutions — not to mention they set a dangerous precedent, since the U.S. and Israel are not even members of the ICC. Because of the ICC's warrant, Prime Minister Netanyahu could be arrested for visiting Auschwitz on the anniversary of the liberation, or for attending the Munich Security Conference next month. That's absolutely shameful.
We must not be silent in the face of this injustice. That's why last Congress, as chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I cosponsored and championed a bill to sanction ICC officials and others who support this false pretext of justice. Click the image above to watch my remarks on the House floor last year.
This Congress, I joined my colleagues in re-introducing the bill, and I'm proud to say it passed the House with my support on Monday.
I now urge the Senate to pass the bill and send it to the president's desk. Where the ICC’s target is Israel today, it could be America tomorrow.