Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins a four-day visit to Hungary on Thursday, defying an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza as Israel has expanded its military operation in the enclave.
As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made clear when he issued the invitation that Hungary would not respect the ruling.
Netanyahu, who is battling a political storm at home over an investigation into suspected ties between Qatar and three of his aides, is due to meet Orban ahead of a press conference at around 1000 GMT.
Netanyahu has rejected the accusations regarding his aides as “fake news”. A Qatari official has dismissed the accusations as part of a “smear campaign” against Qatar.
In Budapest, workers were constructing a stage in the Buda Castle on Wednesday, where Orban was scheduled to welcome Netanyahu in a ceremony with military honours on Thursday morning and security forces could be seen near the central Budapest hotel where Netanyahu will be staying.
The visit will be only the second he has made abroad since the International Criminal Court issued warrants to arrest both him and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant last November, but details of his programme have been limited apart from a planned visit to a Holocaust memorial.
He visited Washington in February to meet close ally U.S. President Donald Trump. Neither Israel nor the United States are members of the ICC, with Washington arguing the ICC could be used for politically motivated prosecutions.
Orban invited Netanyahu to visit a day after the ICC issued its arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, where Israel launched an offensive following a devastating attack by thousands of Hamas fighters, that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
Since then, the Israeli campaign has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and devastated the Gaza Strip, triggering protests worldwide and prompting South Africa to launch separate legal action in the International Court of Justice, a different body to the ICC, accusing Israel of genocide.
‘Completely unacceptable’
Israel has rejected all the accusations, which it says are politically motivated and fuelled by antisemitism. It says the International Criminal Court has lost all legitimacy by issuing the warrants against a democratically elected leader of a country exercising the right of self defence.
Orban has echoed Israel’s condemnation of the court, describing its decision to issue the warrants as “brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable”.
The ICC said in a statement that member states were under a legal obligation to enforce the court’s rulings, adding that it is not for the states to determine the soundness of its legal decisions.
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