South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune on Sunday threatened to slap the International Criminal Court (ICC) with sanctions if it did not drop its application for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Thune – who was selected Wednesday to be the next Senate Majority Leader once the GOP takes the upper chamber come January 2025 – warned that if the current Democratic leader does not take on the international court, he will.
“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 wrote on X. “If Majority Leader Schumer does not act, the Senate Republican majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this – and other supportive legislation – a top priority in the next Congress.”
Senator John Thune, R-S.D., center, newly elected Senate majority leader for the upcoming 119th Congress, speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (TING SHEN/AFP via Getty Images)
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In May, the ICC issued applications for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, as well as then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas terrorists for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. All three Hamas leaders are believed to since have been killed.
Thune’s threats were made in coordination with a bill introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in June – which closely aligned with a bill that passed in the House with bipartisan support just days prior – that called for sanctions against prosecutors who have gone after “U.S., Israeli, or any other allied citizen wrongfully targeted by the ICC.”
The U.S. does not officially recognize the ICC’s authority, but it is not the first time Washington has looked to halt the court’s actions.
In 2020, the Trump administration opposed attempts by the ICC to investigate U.S. soldiers and the CIA involved in alleged war crimes between 2003-2004 “in secret detention facilities in Afghanistan,” and issued sanctions against ICC prosecutors.
However, the sanctions did more than target individuals through asset freezing and international travel bans and were deemed, at the time, to have the potential for “wide-reaching consequences.”
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
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“Service providers to the ICC – from banks to vending machine companies – may reassess whether continuing to work with the institution is prudent given the risk of inadvertently violating U.S. sanctions,” Human Rights Watch explained.
“[It] created apprehension and uncertainty for nongovernmental organizations, consultants, and lawyers who work with the ICC in investigative and adjudicative capacities,” the organization added.
Richard Goldberg, who served on the White House National Security Council during the Trump administration and who is now a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital the 2020 sanctions were also “effective in shaking up the organization since it was coming up on an election for a new chief prosecutor.”
“Many believed that the presence of U.S. sanctions led Karim Khan to put investigations of Israel and the U.S. in a drawer once he was elected,” Goldberg explained in reference to the ICC’s chief prosecutor who filed the applications for warrants of arrest against Netanyahu and Gallant.
Goldberg argued that sanctions against prosecutors may not be enough to dissuade Khan from pursuing the case against Netanyahu and warned the ICC chief might view them as “a badge of honor.”
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan poses during an interview with AFP at the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais Royal in Paris on Feb. 7, 2024. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)
Goldberg said he thinks lawmakers should consider going after the ICC as a whole rather than individual prosecutors this time around.
“It’s one thing to threaten sanctions against individuals involved in illegitimate schemes to indict American or Israeli soldiers, it’s another thing to use sanctions as a tool to cut off the ICC’s access to funds,” he told Fox.
“I think countries like Japan and Germany will put enormous pressure on the ICC to back down if they think their own banks may be subject to sanctions for wiring money to the ICC,” he added.
Decisions by the court on arrest warrants are generally made within three months, according to Reuters, though it remains unclear when the panel will reach a decision.
The last time the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC was asked to make a decision over issuing a warrant for the arrest of a government leader was when an application was filed against Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2023. The panel reached a decision within one month of the application having been filed.
