Hungary urged to arrest Netanyahu

The organization’s head of research explained that Netanyahu is accused of committing war crimes, using starvation as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip, deliberately targeting civilians and committing crimes against humanity.

Amnesty International said that any visit by Netanyahu to an ICC member state without arresting him would encourage the Israeli regime to commit crimes.

Netanyahu is scheduled to travel to Hungary tomorrow, Wednesday. This is his first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court since the international arrest warrant was issued against him on November 21 for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the Israeli prime minister will travel to Budapest, where he will meet with his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban. The trip will last five days and Netanyahu will return to Tel Aviv on Sunday.

The Hebrew newspaper Yisrael Hayom reported that this will be the first time Netanyahu has visited a member state of the International Criminal Court, which means that in theory, the country is obliged to execute the warrant against him.

Hungary was among the first countries to announce that it would not comply with the warrant, and countries such as France have since followed suit.

In November, the Hungarian prime minister formally invited Netanyahu to Budapest, expressing surprise at the ICC’s “shameful” decision to issue an arrest warrant.

The Israeli channel 12 had previously reported that the visit followed an invitation from the Hungarian prime minister to Netanyahu. Hungary is a signatory to the Rome Statute, which recognizes the jurisdiction of the ICC in The Hague. However, Orbán insisted that “Netanyahu can come to Hungary without fear of arrest.”

At the same time, the channel reported that despite Netanyahu’s invitation, “there is no way to get to Hungary without passing through the airspace of other signatory states of the Rome Statute, so the risk of arrest still exists,” as some European countries had previously said that Netanyahu would be arrested upon entering their territory.

The Israeli regime denies any jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in the occupied Palestinian territories, but the court emphasizes that it has legal jurisdiction and that Israel does not need to accept the court's jurisdiction.