Ilhan Omar Calls For International Criminal Court In US As Possible Targeting Of Israel...Leading Democrats in Congress are pressing for the United States to join an international court investigating Israel for war crimes.

 

Ilhan Omar Calls For International Criminal Court In US As Possible Targeting Of Israel

(FreedomBeacon.com)- Leading Democrats in Congress are pressing for the United States to join an international court investigating Israel for war crimes. Critics have criticized such investigations as being erroneous and politically motivated. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the world’s only permanent court with jurisdiction over war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth have sponsored legislation requiring the United States to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The sanctions are in retaliation for Russian suspected war crimes in Ukraine.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Omar claimed that the United States’ failure to ratify the act — which would need a two-thirds majority in the Senate — jeopardizes the country’s capacity to pursue responsibility for Putin and other suspected war criminals.
Despite framing her legislation drive as a response to Russia, Omar and some of her cosponsors have been outspoken critics of Israel, accusing it of war crimes against Palestinians and urging support for ICC investigations against the Jewish state.
For example, in February, Omar slammed the US for opposing an ICC investigation into suspected Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.
Omar called Israeli airstrikes on Hamas, a US-designated terrorist outfit that was shooting hundreds of missiles into Israel at the time, “crimes against humanity” three months later.
Omar has previously defended a 2012 tweet in which she labeled Israel “evil” and said that it “hypnotized the globe.”
On Friday, Omar distributed false information, accusing Israel of assaulting Palestinians on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and Islam. She left out that Palestinian protesters began hurling stones at Jewish worshipers, prompting police to intervene.
According to Jeremy Rabkin, a law professor at George Mason University, her legislative effort would make it more difficult for the US to resist ICC investigations if adopted.
Rabkin believes that if the US is a member, it will be more challenging to denounce or dismiss ICC verdicts. While there is no legal requirement for members to speak favorably of the ICC, it undermines our position that it is unimportant if we have taken it seriously enough to join.
The United States has long resisted membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC), claiming that it infringes on American sovereignty and may be used to prosecute Americans. So far, the Biden administration has maintained its years-long bipartisan opposition to the ICC. However, the administration is allegedly considering whether it can help the ICC prosecute Putin and Russian military officials as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.