Hungary withdraws from the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced its government.
A senior official of the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban confirmed this hour after the head of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, who is requested as part of an ICC arrest warrant, arrived in Hungary for a state visit.
Orban had invited Netanyahu as soon as the mandate was issued last November, saying that the decision would have “no effect” in its country.
In November, the CPI judges said that there were “reasonable reasons” that Netanyahu had “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas. Netanyahu condemned the CPI’s decision as “anti -Semitic”.
The ICC, a world court, has the power to pursue people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Hungary is a founding member of the ICC, which has 125 Member States, and will be the first nation of the European Union to withdraw from it. A withdrawal has no impact on current procedures.
During a joint press conference, Orban said that the ICC had become a “political court”. He added the court to issue a mandate against the Israeli chief “clearly showed it”.
Netanyahu welcomed the “daring and principle” decision of Hungary to withdraw from the court.
“It is important for all democracies. It is important to resist this corrupt organization,” said Netanyahu.
Earlier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Gideon Sa’ar, thanked Orban on X for his “clear and strong moral position alongside Israel”.
“The so-called the International Criminal Court has lost its moral authority after having trampled on the fundamental principles of international law in its zest to harm the law of Israel to self-defense,” added Sa’ar.
Hungary’s decision aligned with its position as a broader foreign policy under Orban, which cultivated close ties with Israel and adopted a critical vision of international institutions perceived as infiltrated to national sovereignty.
Although the withdrawal of Hungary can bear the symbolic weight and political implications, it does not considerably modify the operational capacity or the legal framework of the ICC.
The court has been faced with similar challenges in the past and continues to operate with broad international support.
But Hungary’s criticism with regard to the ICC as “politically biased” and its decision to withdraw as visits to Netanyahu could establish a precedent so that other nations question or abandon their commitments to international justice on the basis of political alliances or disagreements with specific decisions.
The United States, Russia, China and North Korea are among the nations that are not part of the ICC and therefore do not recognize its jurisdiction.
Israel is not part of the treaty either, but the ICC judged in 2021 that it had jurisdiction over the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, because the UN Secretary General had accepted that The Palestinians were members.
Hungary must now send a written notification to the UN Secretary General to leave the Treaty, the withdrawal taking effect a year later, according to article 127 of the law of Rome, which established the ICC.
The ICC spokesman Fadi El-Abdullah told the BBC: “During the visit of Mr. Netanyahu, the court followed his standard procedures, after the issuance of an arrest warrant. The court recalls that Hungary remains under the obligation to cooperate with the ICC.”
Since the mandate has been issued, the Hungarian authorities should technically arrest Netanyahu and give it to the court in The Hague, although the Member States do not always choose to enforce the CPI mandates.
In Europe, some member states of the ICC have said that they would stop the Israeli chief if he set foot in their country, while others, including Germany, announced that Netanyahu would not be detained if he visited.
But German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock said Thursday that the announcement of Hungary was “a bad day for international criminal law”.
“Europe has clear rules that apply to all EU member states, and it is the law of Rome. I have clearly indicated that no one in Europe is superior to the law and which applies to all areas of law,” she added.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the The United States has condemned the CPI’s decision to issue mandates for Netanyahu’s arrest and has visited the country since its publication in November. His visit to Hungary has marked the first trip to Netanyahu in Europe since then.
Hungarian Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky welcomed Netanyahu on the Tarmac of Budapest airport on Wednesday evening, welcoming him in the country.
Israel calls for Mandates against Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav GallantAnd strongly rejects the accusations. He denies both the authority of the ICC and the legitimacy of the mandates.
Netanyahu said at the time that it was a “daytime day in the history of humanity” and that the ICC had become “the enemy of humanity”.
“It is an anti-Semitic step that has a goal-to dissuade me, to dissuade us from having our natural right to defend us against the enemies who try to destroy us,” he said.
In the same decision, the CPI judges also published a mandate against the military commander of Hamas, Mohammed Deif, who, according to Israel, died. Hamas has also rejected allegations.
The visit comes when Israel has announced that it was extending its Gaza offensive and establishes a new military corridor to put pressure on Hamas, while the deadly Israeli strikes continued through Palestinian territory.
The war in Gaza was launched by the attacks led by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people and led 251 hostages taken to Gaza. Since then, Israeli military attacks have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Hamas Gaza health authorities.
