Washington, June 5 (RHC)-- U.S. lawmakers at the House of Representatives have approved pending legislation that sanctions the International Criminal Court (ICC) over war crimes warrant for Israeli leaders.  According to sources on Capitol Hill, this is the first of several steps that would be needed before these sanctions actually become law.

But observers say that this is significant in that the U.S. House of Representatives, that has long toyed with the idea of sanctioning justices of the ICC, has now made good on that threat.

With a vote of 247 to 155, the U.S. legislators passed the measure that proposes sanctions against the ICC judges and staff members, as well as their family members, and involves anyone who is prosecuting American citizens or citizens of U.S. allies [Israel] that are not party to the International Criminal Court.

This is something that was touted by Republicans right after the ICC’s chief prosecutor tried to get arrest warrants issued against the Israeli leader.  

The vote on Tuesday had 42 Democrats joining their Republican colleagues in approving this measure, which is also significant given that this is pushing back against the White House that just yesterday said that it strongly opposes this measure.

President Biden said that although he also had deep concerns about the seeking of arrest warrants for Netanyahu, he said that this measure to sanction the ICC was going too far.  He said that he opposed it and that there were more effective ways to defend Israel.