Hungary has announced its plans to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in Hague as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Budapest on a four-day visit.
The ICC had issued a warrant to arrest Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The warrant declared that Netanyahu is “allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had called the ICC warrant “brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable” and was pushing the termination documents to his parliament for approval. Orban was quoted during a news conference with Netanyahu as saying “recent ICC decisions show that it has become a political instrument … We are exiting the ICC”.
As signatory to The Hague Court, Hungary was obliged to enforce Netanyahu’s arrest, as the court has no police force of its own, it has no way to execute its rulings and relies on states to simply comply.
Instead, Orban publicly extended an invitation to Netanyahu in November shortly after the ICC issued the warrant, with a guarantee that, “if he comes, the judgment of the ICC will have no effect in Hungary.”
The Court’s reputation was further bruised when US President Donald Trump issued sanctions against the ICC last month, criticizing the Court’s judgement and arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as “baseless.”
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