Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Hungary, on his first trip to a European country since the International Criminal Court of the AIA has issued against him and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, a arrest warrant for war crime in Gaza.
At the time of the court request, the Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán had assured that Netanyahu would never be arrested in Budapest and made him visit the country.
And now the moment of the visit has come while Tel Aviv is launching a new, very hard offensive to Gaza. Just today (Wednesday 2 April) a UNRWA clinic was hit in Jabaliya, in the north of Gaza, where 19 Palestinians were killed, including nine children.
Second visit abroad
That of Netanyahu, who is facing a political storm at home due to an investigation into alleged ties between Qatar and three of his assistants, will only be the second visit abroad since the CPI issued the stopover last November. In February he had gone to Washington to meet the president of the United States, Donald Trump, his close ally. In Hungary there is a press conference with Orbán and other events, including a visit to a Holocaust memorial.
Away from the court
As a founding member of the CPI, Hungary would be theoretically obliged to arrest and deliver anyone who is the subject of a mandate of the Court. But Budapest, in addition to not wanting to perform the order, seems willing to get out of the body completely.
This was stated by Radio Free Europe, according to which the Minister of Justice, Bence Tuzson, has already communicated the decision last week to a group of ambassadors during a conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commerce.
At this point the Orbán government should present a resolution proposal to Parliament and, in the event of approval, the output process would officially begin, which could last up to a year. According to the information of Radio Free Europe, the political decision on Hungary’s exit was taken weeks ago, but the government waited to understand what Donald Trump’s position would be on the CPI.
