Bipartisan Senators Respond to ICC Arrest Warrants Issued for Israeli Leaders

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Thune (R-SD), John Fetterman (D-PA), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Joni Ernst (R-IA) released the following statement today after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant:

“We are disappointed in the ICC’s decision to move ahead with arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant given the Court’s lack of jurisdiction over Israel and its refusal to engage with Israel as required by law. We cannot abide the Court acting against a sovereign, independent, judicially independent democracy that is not a party to the Rome Statute. Now is an important time for America to speak with a single voice. Acquiescing to the Court’s jurisdiction over Israel is to agree, in theory, they have jurisdiction over the United States.”

Earlier this month, Blumenthal, Graham, Thune, Fetterman, Ernst and U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) sent a letter to the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), the governing body of the ICC, raising concerns regarding the ICC’s decision to seek the warrants issued today.

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