Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Mr. Viktor Orban at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, July 19, 2018. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)
Hungary expected to withdraw from the International Criminal Court during Netanyahu’s visit, which defies the ICC arrest warrants issued last year over the Gaza war.
By World Israel News Staff
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to depart for Hungary on Thursday, kicking off a four-day state visit to the European Union member state in defiance of the International Criminal Court’s call for his arrest.
During the visit, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with his Hungarian counterpart, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is a staunch ally of Israel.
Hungary, a founding member state of the International Criminal Court, is required by the terms of the ICC’s Rome Statute to adhere to the 2024 arrest warrant issued by ICC chief prosecutor Karim Kahn. In the past, however, Orban has rejected the ICC arrest warrant, and he indicated that it will not be enforced against the Israeli premier.
According to a report by The Times of Israel, Hungary will drop out of the Rome Statute, disassociating itself from the ICC, during Netanyahu’s visit – thus ending its legal obligation to enforce the arrest warrant.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Orban on Thursday morning in Budapest in a ceremony at the Buda Castle.
The Israeli premier’s trip to Hungary will be his second abroad since Khan issued arrest warrants against him and his then-defense minister Yoav Gallant last November.
In early February, Netanyahu visited the United States – which, like Israel, is not a member of the ICC’s Rome Statute – to meet with President Donald Trump.
Orban, a critic of the ICC, invited Netanyahu for a state visit last November, a day after the court issued its arrest warrant against the Israeli leader. Some analysts have suggested that Netanyahu’s trip, as well as Orban’s invitation, are part of a calculated effort to weaken the ICC.
Netanyahu is “trying to visit as many countries as possible to show that the ICC is a paper tiger and cannot enforce the arrest warrant against him,” University of Amsterdam international law lecturer Mathias Holvoet told the German daily Die Welt.
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