A group of 12 Republican US senators sent a letter to International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, threatening repercussions if the court issues arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials, according a Monday report from news organization Zeteo.
The senators allege that the ICC seeks to punish “legitimate actions of self-defense,” citing Khan’s report of the “calculated cruelty” he witnessed following the October 7 attack and making clear that they find “no moral equivalence between Hamas’s terrorism and Israel’s justified response.” They claimed that the arrest warrants “would align the ICC with the largest state sponsor of terrorism.”
The signatories declared they would take any warrant issued as “not only a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States.” They threaten, “Target Israel and we will target you” and that any further action will “end all American support for the ICC” and “bar [Khan] and [his] families from the United States.” It ended: “You have been warned.”
The letter, dated April 24, 2024, was signed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as well as Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas; Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Katie Boyd Britt of Alabama; Ted Budd of North California; Kevin Cramer of North Dakota; Ted Cruz of Texas; Bill Hagerty of Tennessee; Pete Ricketts of Nebraska; Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida; and Tim Scott of South Carolina.