Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be arrested in Hungary if he makes another state visit there. Photo: Reuters
Netanyahu has to fear arrest in Hungary again
The Hungarian parliament has adopted legislation that reinstates the country as a member of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Thus, they annulled the decision made last year by the former government of Viktor Orban.
The new Hungarian Prime Minister, Peter Magyar, already with his first actions, is eliminating the controversial decisions of Viktor Orban’s sixteen-year rule. Probably the most eloquent example is today’s decision by the Hungarian Parliament that the country once again accedes to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Orban government decided to withdraw from the list of supporters of the court last spring, before the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hungary, who is wanted by the ICC for war crimes in Gaza. With this, Orban’s government paved the way for Netanyahu’s safe arrival in Hungary, because otherwise it would have been forced to arrest the suspect and send him to The Hague.
But Orban did not intend to do that at the time, so they found the “argument” that the ICC had become a political court to withdraw. The situation was assessed quite differently in Prime Minister Magyar’s ruling Tisza party. “In the interest of international peace and security and for the protection of human rights, it is imperative that those who have committed the worst international crimes be brought before the international court,” they wrote in the adopted law, with which Hungary returns to the ICC supporters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must again fear arrest in Hungary if he were to set foot on its territory.
