Democrats in the U.S. Senate blocked a bill on Tuesday that would impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court over its decision to investigate and issue warrants for the arrest of Israeli officials, including the Israeli prime minister.
Republicans needed 60 votes to invoke cloture and proceed, but the vote failed 54-45, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) the lone Democrat to vote “yea.”
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Illegitimate Court Counteraction (ICC) Act earlier this month 243-140, with 45 Democrats voting in favor.
The bill instructs the U.S. president to impose sanctions within 60 days on anyone who “has directly engaged in or otherwise aided any effort by the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute” U.S. citizens or the citizens of U.S. allies not party to the ICC’s Rome Statute, including Israel.
In November, the ICC, a stand-alone court in The Hague which is not part of the United Nations, issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister, for alleged “crimes against humanity and war crimes” in Gaza.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote on Tuesday that he supports imposing sanctions on the court in response to its investigation of Israel but that the bill’s provisions were overly broad.
“The ICC bill is one I largely support and would like to see become law,” Schumer said. “However, as much as I oppose the ICC’s deep bias against Israel, and as much as I want to see that institution drastically reformed and reshaped, the bill before us is poorly drafted and deeply problematic.”
In the floor debate on the bill, Republicans and Democrats disagreed on how wide a net ought to be cast in applying sanctions to ICC employees and contractors.
“Others have said the ICC bill targets ‘citizens of our allies,’” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said. “Yes, if you are involved in illegitimately targeting Americans, you could face sanctions.”
“This bill does not, once again, sanction foreign nations like the United Kingdom, but if British nationals at the court are targeting American citizens, you better believe they could face sanctions,” Cotton added.
Fetterman wrote that he was “deeply disappointed” about the outcome of the vote.
“My vote follows Israel—not the ICC that equivocated the democratically elected leader of our special ally to the terrorists and rapists of Hamas,” Fetterman said.
