The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today said that the International Criminal Court should disregard “illegal and unacceptable” threats by incoming Republican Senate majority leader Sen. John Thune and other GOP officials to sanction the court and prosecutors over their possible pursuit of war crimes charges against top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for the genocide in Gaza.
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“Threatening American judges and prosecutors would be unacceptable, and it’s just as unacceptable to threaten international judges and prosecutors.
“The nearly identical set of threatening messages that Senate Republicans posted about the International Criminal Court over the past 24 hours reflects a complete disregard for the rule of law. By threatening to illegally sanction the International Criminal Court if it levels charges against Israeli officials, regardless of the merits of such charges, these senators have violated their oath to faithfully uphold our own nation’s laws.
“It seems the Israeli government and its supporters in the U.S. Senate may have received a tip that something is forthcoming from the ICC and that they are increasingly desperate to stop that from happening. The ICC must reject this brazen pressure campaign and hold Benjamin Netanyahu and other war criminals in the Israeli government accountable for their crimes.”
He noted that CAIR has repeatedly condemned Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the Biden administration’s complicity with that genocide.
In July, CAIR welcomed reports that Britain’s government would withdraw objections to an ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu and urged the Biden administration to follow suit.
In May, CAIR called on the Biden administration to respect and not interfere with the “clear and credible” arrest warrant applications that the ICC prosecutor is seeking and condemned Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s implicit threat to help Republicans in Congress impose sanctions on ICC.
END
CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com