This is his first step on European soil since the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court required for him for suspicions of war crimes and against humanity in Gaza last November. Benyamin Netanyahou is due to arrive this Thursday, April 3 at dawn in Budapest for a four -day visit to Hungary on Thursday, April 3 in Budape. He will obviously be there with Viktor Orban, the Hungarian head of government, as well as with other senior officials in the country.
This displacement is obviously not trivial. Last November, the Hungarian Prime Minister strongly criticized the decision of the ICC, qualifying it as “shameful” and “cynical” and therefore ensuring his desire not to respect it. He had his Israeli counterpart in the guidance guest for an official visit to Budapest, assuring him that there was no fear that he was arrested.
What symbolize the ever stronger rapprochement between Viktor Orban and Benyamin Netanyahu, two leaders sharing the same illiberal abuses in their respective countries. The Hungarian Prime Minister has also been a flawless support of the Israeli regime since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, refusing to sign any resolution questioning the scale of the response of the Hebrew State, and this to the European Union or to the United Nations.
Not a first for Viktor Orban
However, this visit poses a legal problem. Hungary is indeed signatory to the Rome status, the international treaty which created the International Criminal Court, in 1999, before ratifying it two years later, in 2001, during the first mandate of Viktor Orban. Through her commitments, she is therefore required to stop any person targeted by an ICC arrest warrant. To defend herself, Budapest puts forward that she has never promulgated the agreement associated with the status of Rome, for reasons of compliance with its constitution, and therefore affirms that it is not required to comply with the decisions of the institution.
An argument which is far from convincing on the side of the ICC, which criticized Hungary’s decision to challenge its arrest warrant against Benyamin Netanyahu. Court spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah said that he did not belong to the parties to the ICC “to unilaterally determine the merits of the legal decisions of the Court”. “The participating states have the obligation to apply the decisions of the Court,” he said to theAssociated Press.
However, the International Criminal Court has no coercive means to force its members to apply its decisions, and can only count on the good will of the latter to act. A quality on which it is very optimistic to count concerning Viktor Orban, which is not at its first try. In November 2023, he had received a certain Vladimir Putin in Budapest, at that time obviously already targeted by an ICC arrest warrant. But if the Hungarian government had especially highlighted the legal argument to justify the reception of the Kremlin autocrat two years ago, rhetoric is relatively different for the arrival of Benyamin Netanyahu, with this time a moral distrust pronounced against the institution.
Expected announcements
But all these legal debates could soon be only of ancient history, this visit should exceed the simple framework of the symbol and the provocation towards international justice. Thus, according to the Times of IsraelHungary could take advantage of the arrival of Benyamin Netanyahu to announce its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. A decision that has been mentioned for several months already, but which could materialize by the end of this week. What make Hungary the only country of the European Union outside the ICC; A posture obviously far from displeasing the Viktor Orban regime, customary to take the opposite view from its European counterparts.
Among the program for this four-day visit, the Israeli Prime Minister should also probe his Hungarian counterpart concerning the possible support of Budapest in terms of Gaza of the American president Donald Trump-namely the departure of the whole Palestinian population and the reconstruction of the enclave by the United States to make it the “Riviera du Middle East”. “Benyamin Netanyahu is trying to form the widest country coalition possible to support Donald Trump’s plan for the Gaza Strip,” an Israeli source said to the Times of Israel. “All questions can be addressed and negotiated in the context of the Israeli-Hungarian dialogue,” was content to answer the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, farting Szijarto.
Timped reactions in the EU
This meeting aroused strong criticism from international organizations. “Benyamin Netanyahu’s announced visit must be considered as a cynical attempt to undermine the ICC and his work, and constitutes an insult to the victims of these crimes which count on the Court to obtain justice,” said Amnesty International in a statement. Humans Right Watch has denounced “one more attack by Viktor Orban against the rule of law, adding to the sad report of the country in matters of human rights”.
On the European side, on the other hand, the reactions have so far remained timid. The European Commission was content to affirm that “[sa] Position is clear and unshakable: the European Union supports the ICC and the principles set out by the status of Rome “.
It must be said that if Hungary is the first European country to cross the Rubicon by receiving Benyamin Netanyahu on its soil, other leaders on the continent are not far from sharing the same opinion. On February 24, the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had assured that Benyamin Netanyahu “could go” to Germany despite the CPI arrest warrant, ensuring that it was a “completely absurd idea that an Israeli Prime Minister could not visit the Federal Republic of Germany”. Polish head of government Donald Tusk had invited Israeli Prime Minister to the 80th anniversary ceremony of the release of the Auschwitz extermination camp.
French diplomacy had remained relatively vague to the announcement of the arrest warrant targeting the Israeli Prime Minister, highlighting possible “immunity questions” for “certain leaders” of states who have not signed the status of Rome and not being a member of the ICC, thus evoking the case of Benyamin Netanyahu. In this context, it is therefore difficult to imagine a firm conviction on the part of European capitals, despite the obvious foot of the ICC.