US President Joe Biden – and thus the Democratic Party – could lose one of its most prominent supporters in the middle of the election campaign. According to the Washington Post, Oscar winner George Clooney has joined the debate about the controversial arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Joav Galant.
According to the report, Clooney called the White House after the US House of Representatives voted for sanctions against ICC members. The actor is said to have complained to a close adviser to Biden because these sanctions could also affect his wife Amal. The 46-year-old lawyer from Lebanon had advised the team led by ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
It was further reported that Clooney was upset that Biden had described the International Criminal Court’s actions as “outrageous.” Prosecutors also requested arrest warrants for senior Hamas leaders.
The International Criminal Court had previously published a letter from Amal Clooney with a statement. According to the letter, Chief Prosecutor Khan had asked the co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice more than four months ago to assist him, together with a group of experts, in examining the evidence.
Amal Clooney goes on to write that after examining the evidence, she and the experts voted to request the arrest warrants. The panel’s vote was unanimous. “I participated in this panel because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives,” Clooney writes, describing the ICC’s actions as a “historic step.”
After the phone call, Biden’s campaign team is now said to fear that Clooney could withdraw his support for the Republican’s election campaign, the Washington Post reports. Among other things, the discussion concerns a fundraising gala on June 15. Numerous celebrities have announced their participation, including former US President Barack Obama, presenter Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts.
According to the Washington Post, Clooney himself is said to have donated $500,000 to Biden in the past, and he also hosted a virtual fundraising gala that raised $7 million.
The White House had described the sanctions against the ICC as “not the right answer” to the problem. The US House of Representatives later voted for a bill that provides for sanctions against members of the International Criminal Court. The chairman of the opposition Republican-dominated Congress, Mike Johnson, said the vote showed that the US was firmly on Israel’s side. However, the vote is likely to have mainly symbolic value. It is not expected that the bill will pass the Democratic-dominated Senate.