Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, the ICC's ruling is outrageous. The organization has dishonored itself. I would have been happy to cosponsor a resolution denouncing and sanctioning. I wanted to cosponsor this bill when I read the title; unfortunately, I read the bill.

Once again, we have a poorly drafted, poorly thought-out messaging bill that hasn't gone through the committee process, that hasn't gone through regular order, that hasn't been thought through. No amendments are allowed on the floor, and the author defends it on the theory that, well, if the bill is poorly drafted, the Senate will save us and correct it.

We cannot vote ``yes'' on a bill today that is this infirm and count on the Senate to clean it up.

Once again, the Republican Party has decided to hurt Israel for its own benefit. Israel has one friend in the world, the United States-- plus Guatemala. Israel has survived because it has had the support of both political parties.

During the first 76 years of Israel's existence, Democrats have had roughly half the power in this city, and Republicans about half of the time have been in control. If Israel is to survive another 76 years, it will need the support of both parties. Yet, the purpose of this bill, which masquerades as pro-Israel, like so many bills brought up as messaging bills, is to drive a wedge between the Democratic Party and Israel for the benefit not of Israel but the Republican Party.

The decision by the International Criminal Court's prosecutor to seek arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is an outrageous perversion of everything anyone who has dedicated themselves to human rights holds dear, as I have for 28 years on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

It is a perversion of the international justice system. It is putrid. It dishonors those who originally thought that the International Criminal Court would be a good idea. It undermines the rule of law, and it is based on a hatred of Israel and perhaps a hatred of Jews.

I would like to vote for this bill, but unfortunately I read it. Now, the ranking member has pointed out a number of problems. I will point out a couple as well. You cannot vote for this until you read section 2(a)(1)(A), which imposes sanctions on anyone who assists an effort to investigate, assists an effort to investigate.

What does that mean? It includes those who provide exculpatory information. Israel was subject to investigation. I am sure many patriotic Israelis and well-meaning Americans provided information to the ICC, as Chip Roy did when he gave his speech, detailing why that action is wrongful on the law and the facts; but you assist an investigation when you provide exculpatory information, and anyone who does that is subject to sanction. Mr. Roy won't be sanctioned because he is a U.S. citizen, but anyone else who contacted the court and said here is what you are doing is wrong will be subject to these sanctions.

Second, this bill punishes the spouses and family members, even estranged family members. You may feel that your son has gone wrong. By involvement with the ICC, you get sanctioned for what that son does. Particularly, I want to focus on spouses. As I said, the bill punishes spouses and family members, even those spouses and family members who oppose the ruling.

You are going to wonder why I have this poster up here. All last week, the Republican Party told us that the decision of the Alitos to fly an insurrectionist flag at their two houses should not be imparted to the Justice because it was done by his spouse. Today, one week later, they come back and say that when a judge does something wrong, we are going to impart it to the spouse. Which is it? Are Justices and their spouses responsible for each other's actions or not? Some Republican is going to have to explain this to me.

Now, of course, this is even different and more extreme. Justice Alito lived in the houses, Justice Alito did not disclaim the message of these flags, and Justice Alito is not estranged from his wife, yet someone who is totally apart from anyone at the ICC but happens to be related will be subject to sanctions. Again, how can you defend an appeal to Heaven under those circumstances?

The attention of the world should be on the incredible hypocrisy on the International Criminal Court, which failed to issue rulings about driving the Rohingya from their home, about the complete depopulation of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, of the Republic of Artsakh where the entire country was driven into exile in ethnic cleansing. It failed to issue a ruling dealing with northern Ethiopia, where 600,000 people died. This illegitimate court failed to issue a ruling on the Yazidis, who were subjected to a genocide, as the world watched thousands of Yazidis being butchered and burned alive and subjected to sexual slavery.

Instead of focusing our attention on the hypocrisy of the court, we are focused on this poorly drafted resolution. I tried making suggestions to the author. Every suggestion I made was rejected. This was not an attempt to pass a pro-Israel bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, this was not a pro-Israel bill. Instead it was a poorly drafted, rush-to-the-floor, strictly partisan messaging bill that distracts the world from the hypocrisy of the ICC and focuses us instead on a supposedly pro-Israel, performatively pro-Israel Republican bill.

We will have to vote ``no,'' and then we will have to work later to demonstrate how wrong and how putrid the action of the ICC is.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source