Defying ICC arrest warrant, Netanyahu to visit Hungary this week
Prime minister expected to discuss controversial US Gaza rehabilitation plan with Orban, who has vowed not to act on international arrest order against Israeli leader
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to Hungary on Wednesday evening, according to a schedule released by his office Sunday, defying an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him.
It will be Netanyahu’s first trip to Europe since the ICC last year issued a warrant for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip, meaning that countries party to the Rome Statute — which include Hungary — would be obliged to take him into custody.
Netanyahu is slated to meet with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who in November rejected the ICC decision to seek Netanyahu’s arrest and invited him to make an official visit without the fear of being detained. The Israeli leader has long had close relations with Orban, who has been in power since 2010.
Netanyahu and Orban will discuss potential Hungarian support for US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, an Israeli source told The Times of Israel on Sunday.
“Netanyahu is trying to build a coalition of as many countries as possible backing Trump’s plan for Gaza,” said the source.
In February, speaking alongside Netanyahu in the White House, Trump announced his vision for Gaza, which would see its population relocated abroad and the US lead reconstruction efforts to turn the war-torn Strip into a Mediterranean resort.
The Trump plan has been rejected by the Palestinians as well as Arab and Islamic states, but embraced by Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition. Netanyahu has reportedly asked the Mossad spy agency to put out feelers for countries that would agree to take in Gazans.
As he almost always does, Netanyahu is slated to remain abroad over Shabbat along with his entourage and security detail at taxpayer expense.
Hungary is a close Israeli ally in the European Union and NATO. It is a member of the ICC, which announced arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu as well as former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Neither Israel nor the United States is are party to the court, and the warrant has no enforcement mechanism, with the ICC instead relying on cooperation from its member states. ICC member countries are required to act on the court’s arrest warrants but have not always done so.
Though the US is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, the ICC arrest warrant impacted Netanyahu’s flight path to Washington for his February visit.
Netanyahu flew less than six weeks after surgery to have his prostate removed.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter revealed last week that the prime minister’s flight to the US via Europe was forced to take a longer path so that it was flying over US army bases in an event that it could be forced to land for medical reasons and would not land in a country that may arrest Netanyahu.
In the wake of the warrants, a number of countries said they would not arrest Netanyahu were he to visit, including Hungary, Argentina, the Czech Republic and Romania.
Poland said it would seek to shield him from arrest, while France and Italy said they believed he had immunity as a world leader from a state not party to the ICC.
Landlocked Hungary is surrounded by Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. According to a December Euronews report, Slovenia and Austria have both indicated they would enforce the arrest warrant.
The Times of Israel Community.