US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) holds a press conference in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, April 23, 2024. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Democrats in the US Senate on Tuesday blocked Republican-led legislation that would have sanctioned the International Criminal Court (ICC), expressing concerns that the bill could potentially have negative effects on American companies and allies. 

Senate Republicans fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill, with a final count of 54-45. Democrats had attempted to broker a bipartisan agreement on the bill to prevent American companies and allies working with the ICC from being penalized with sanctions which are intended to punish the international court’s prosecution against Israel. In addition, some Democrats have argued that issuing sanctions against the ICC would prevent US officials from working alongside the court to prosecute war crimes internationally.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) stood out as the sole Democrat to vote in favor of the legislation. 

“Deeply disappointed by the outcome of the ICC sanctions bill.  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 wrote on X/Twitter. 

Fetterman’s comments echo statements he made last month in which the lawmaker vowed that his Senate vote will continue to “follow Israel” during the Trump administration. 

Though Fetterman campaigned as a progressive, he has emerged as a staunch ally of Israel in the 15 months following Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Fetterman has repeatedly condemned anti-Israel voices within his own party in the US Congress, as well as elite universities for tolerating what he has characterized as antisemitic and anti-Israel hate speech on their campuses.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) explained that although he supports sanctioning the ICC, he views the current iteration of the legislation as “problematic.”

“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 bias against Israel, as much as I want to see that institution drastically reformed and reshaped, the bill before us is poorly drafted and deeply problematic.”

Schumer called on Republicans to agree to amending the legislation to prevent US companies and allies from being slapped with sanctions. 

“A bipartisan agreement is still very possible, and we hope and urge our Republican colleagues to sit down with us and come up with a bill that addresses the very real problems at the ICC without adversely affecting American companies and our allies,” Schumer added. 

In June 2024, the House successfully voted in favor of legislation to sanction the ICC, arguing that the court should be “punished” over its prosecution of Israel. The Senate, which was then majority Democratic, refused to vote on the bill.

Earlier this month, the US House of Representatives reintroduced and passed the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act (HR 23), which would sanction members of the ICC over its issuing of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.

The legislation calls for the warrants against the Israeli officials to be “condemned in the strongest possible terms,” labeling them as “illegitimate and baseless” actions that “create a damaging precedent that threatens the United States, Israel, and all United States partners who have not submitted to the ICC’s jurisdiction.”

The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. Other countries including the US have similarly not signed the ICC charter. However, the ICC has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, despite no such state being recognized under international law.

In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas terror leader Ibrahim al-Masri (better known as Mohammed Deif) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. The ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for starvation in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians — charges vehemently denied by Israel, which has provided significant humanitarian aid into the war-torn enclave throughout the war.

US and Israeli officials issued blistering condemnations of the ICC move, decrying the court for drawing a moral equivalence between Israel’s democratically elected leaders and the heads of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that launched the ongoing war in Gaza with its massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said that she hopes to reach an agreement with Senate Republicans to alter the bill’s language. 

“I know we share most of the same concerns he does in drafting the bill, but I think it’s overly broad; it’s not drafted in a way that addresses the unique concerns that we have with respect to the International Criminal Court,” Shaheen said. 

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), who served as co-sponsor on the bill, slammed Democrats for blocking the Senate’s attempt to punish the “corrupt kangaroo court.”

“They had 10 months to negotiate this bill, but instead waited until the last minute to demand unworkable changes that would give carve outs to big tech. Make no mistake-Democrats weakened our national sovereignty and Israel’s ability to defend itself today,” Cotton wrote.