Thune said he would make the sanction legislation ‘a top priority’ in the next Congress should the current Senate majority leader fail to act on it.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Nov. 17 urged the Senate to impose sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it continued to pursue arrest warrants for Israeli officials over the Israel–Hamas war in Gaza.
In June, the House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at imposing sanctions on those involved in the ICC’s efforts “to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute a protected person.” Under this bill, those subject to sanctions would be ineligible to enter or remain in the United States.
Thune said the Senate Republican majority will make the bill, along with other supportive legislation, “a top priority in the next Congress” should there be no action taken by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“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 stated on social media platform X.
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. If Majority Leader Schumer does…
— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) November 17, 2024
In May, the ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
Khan also requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders over the killings and kidnappings that Hamas terrorists committed when they entered southern Israel during the attack.
A bipartisan group of senators released a statement on May 21, saying: “These actions by the ICC jeopardize efforts to bring about sustainable peace in the Middle East. It puts at risk sensitive negotiations to bring home hostages, including Americans, and surge humanitarian assistance.”
Not all lawmakers opposed the ICC move.
“The allegations from the prosecutor’s office are significant, and it has long been my belief that the absence of credible processes for justice are a key reason the conflict between Israel and Palestinians continues to escalate,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said in May.
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