Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), is set to visit Hungary next month.
Hungarian State Minister Gergely Gulyas announced that Netanyahu will visit the country before April 20 upon the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Israeli Channel 12 TV mentioned the risk of Netanyahu’s arrest. Despite the invitation, it was reported that there is no way for Netanyahu to reach Hungary without crossing the airspace of other countries who have signed the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC. The visit to Hungary will be Netanyahu’s first trip to Europe following the ICC’s arrest warrant. Although Hungary is one of the countries that signed the Rome Statute, Orban explicitly accused the ICC of interfering in an ongoing conflict with political intentions due to the arrest warrant against Netanyahu and clearly stated that Netanyahu can come to Hungary. The ICC had issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.
The court also rejected Israel’s objections to the ICC’s jurisdiction, ruling that it has authority to prosecute crimes committed in Palestinian territories. Israeli soldiers who had traveled to the Netherlands had to leave the country out of fear of being arrested for war crimes in Gaza.
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