Facing ICC arrest warrant, Netanyahu lands in Hungary; Orban’s minister says withdrawing from the court

Hungary’s government announced on Thursday that it will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is subject to an ICC arrest warrant, arrived in the country for a state visit.

“The government will initiate the termination procedure on Thursday, in accordance with the constitutional and international legal frameworks," Politico quoted Gergely Gulyás, the minister in charge of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s office, as saying to Hungarian news agency MTI.

Right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban invited Netanyahu to Budapest just a day after the ICC issued the warrant over alleged war crimes in Gaza, following an attack by Hamas on southern Israel.

Israel has dismissed the charges as politically motivated and driven by antisemitism, arguing that the ICC has lost its legitimacy by targeting a democratically elected leader defending his country.

As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obligated to arrest individuals under warrant from the court. However, Orban stated that Hungary would not comply, labeling the ruling as “brazen, cynical, and completely unacceptable.”

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Hungary signed the ICC’s founding document in 1999 and ratified it in 2001, but the law has yet to be enacted.

Gulyas said in November that although Hungary ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC, it “was never made part of Hungarian law”, meaning that no measure of the court can be carried out within Hungary.

Orban had raised the prospect of Hungary’s exit from the ICC after US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the court’s prosecutor Karim Khan in February.

“It’s time for Hungary to review what we’re doing in an international organisation that is under US sanctions,” Orban said on X in February.

The bill on starting the year-long process of withdrawing from the ICC is likely to be approved by Hungary’s parliament that is dominated by Orban’s Fidesz party.

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The Netherlands, which hosts the ICC, said that until withdrawal is complete, Hungary must still meet its duties.

“The full process to withdraw from the ICC takes about a year, during that time Hungary will have to fulfil all its obligations to the court,” Reuters quoted Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp as saying to reporters on the sidelines of a Nato meeting in Brussels.

Netanyahu has enjoyed strong support over the years from Hungary’s Orban, an important ally who has been ready to block EU statements or actions critical of Israel in the past.

ICC judges said when they issued the warrant that there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and his former defence chief were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza”.

The Israeli campaign has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities, and devastated the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

The ICC also issued an arrest warrant against a Hamas leader in November. His death was confirmed after the warrant was issued.

With inputs from agencies