In defiance to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit Hungary today, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.
During the visit, which runs until Sunday, Netanyahu will meet his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban, who invited him in November, soon after the ICC issued the arrest warrant.
Hungary, a founding ICC member, is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court.
However, Orban made clear it would not respect the ruling.
Netanyahu is expected to meet Orban in Budapest on Wednesday evening.
Details of their planned programme have been limited to a visit to a Holocaust memorial.
The Times of Israel reported a source as saying Netanyahu and Orban will discuss potential Hungarian support for US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan.
The trip will be Netanyahu’s second abroad since the ICC issued warrants to arrest both him and former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant in November last year.
The Israeli Prime Minister visited Washington in February to meet close ally US President Donald Trump.
Israel and the United States are not members of the ICC.
The ICC issued arrest warrants after assessing there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
Israel has rejected all the accusations, which it says are politically motivated and fuelled by anti-Semitism.
European Green Party Calls For Netanyahu’s Arrest
The European Green Party called for Netanyahu to be arrested and face the ICC trial.
Party Co-chair, Ciaran Cuffe in a statement that the European Union and national governments have a duty to uphold international law and ensure accountability for war crimes and human rights abuses.
“By ignoring the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Prime Minister Netanyahu, Viktor Orban is showing the same disregard for the rule of law on the international stage that he has consistently shown in Hungary.”
Ciaran Cuffe
The Hague-based court criticised Hungary’s decision to defy its warrant for Netanyahu.
The court’s spokesperson, Fadi El Abdallah, said that it is not for parties to the ICC “to unilaterally determine the soundness of the Court’s legal decisions.”
El Ebdallah added that participating states have an obligation to enforce the court’s decisions. “Any dispute concerning the judicial functions of the Court shall be settled by the decision of the Court,” El Abdallah said.
Hungary’s President Viktor Orban is seen as a pioneer of some of the same tactics Netanyahu has been accused of employing in Israel: subjugation of the judiciary, antagonism towards the European Union, and cracking down on civil society and human rights groups.
Amnesty International also slammed Hungary for inviting the Israeli Prime Minister to visit the country, despite the ICC warrant for his arrest over suspected war crimes in Gaza.
Erika Guevara Rosas, the Head of global research, advocacy and policy at Amnesty International called Prime Minister Netanyahu an “alleged war criminal, who is accused of using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally attacking civilians and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
“As a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Hungary must arrest him if he travels to the country and hand him over to the Court.”
Erika Guevara Rosas
Guevara Rosas added that failing to arrest Netanyahu would embolden Israel to “commit further crimes against Palestinians”, calling the visit a “cynical effort to undermine the ICC.”
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