Hungary withdraws from the International Criminal Court after hosting Netanyahu

BarcelonaThe Hungarian government announced Thursday that it is withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC), the body that tries those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The reason is the support of the far-right Viktor Orbán administration for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom it has welcomed despite the fact that the international arrest warrant for his actions in Gaza. Netanyahu arrived in Budapest last night at the invitation of Orbán, who defied the order, which is binding on all member states. The visit coincided with Another bloody day in Gaza with at least 100 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombings, 29 of them at a UN school where civilians were sheltering..

Hungary was one of the founding members of the ICC in 1999, to which the 27 European Union member states also belong. After inviting Netanyahu to the court in November, in an open defiance of the court when the judges agreed to grant the prosecutor's request for his arrest, the Hungarian government had already hinted at the possibility of withdrawing from the court. Budapest ratified its membership in 2001, although it failed to transpose it into its constitutional order. Orbán's decision is in line with US President Donald Trump, who imposed sanctions in February against the court's prosecutor, Karim Khan, who proposed Netanyahu's arrest. However, the United States is not a member of the court in order to maintain impunity for its soldiers and political and military leaders in their foreign interventions.

The ICC judges argue in the arrest warrant that there are grounds to believe Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, are responsible for crimes including murder, persecution, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war in a "systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza." The court also issued an arrest warrant for the Hamas leader who was killed in the current Israeli offensive.

From Budapest, Netanyahu hailed his Hungarian ally's announcement as a "courageous" and "principled" decision and said that Orbán has "tirelessly and proudly supported Israel and the Jewish people." He thanked Orbán for the decision: "Responding to that corrupt court is important for all democracies." Netanyahu even appealed to the idea that his government and that of the far-right leader are "fighting a similar battle for our common civilization, the Judeo-Christian civilization." The Hungarian prime minister, who until recently ran advertising campaigns calling for "Hungary to be saved from the Jewish danger," has said his country shows "zero tolerance for antisemitism."

Netanyahu's visit to Hungary, where he was received with full honors, including a military band, is expected to run until Sunday, and he is due to meet with Orbán on Thursday. This is not the first time Netanyahu has traveled abroad since the international arrest warrant was issued. In February, he visited the White House at the invitation of Donald Trump, who gave him the green light to break the truce in Gaza and return to indiscriminate bombing, as he did on March 18. France also breached its obligation when it authorized the passage of Netanyahu's plane to the United States through its airspace. Other countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania, and Argentina, also signatories to the Rome Statute, have also announced that they will not enforce the order if Netanyahu travels to their territory. The future German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said last month that he would look for ways for Netanyahu to travel to his country.

ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah recalled that it is not up to states to "unilaterally determine the validity of the court's legal decisions" and that they have an obligation to implement them. Israel also does not recognize the court, but this is not a requirement for it to have the authority to judge a country's perpetrators. This is why the ICC also issued, for example, an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine, although Russia also does not recognize the court.

"The durability of the ICC" is in the hands of the EU.

Rosana Alija, professor of international law at the University of Barcelona, ​​​​explains to ARA that Hungary is still a party to the ICC Statute until the withdrawal is completed, and believes that Orbán "is violating his international legal obligations." She also warns that he is also failing to comply with his obligations as an EU member state. "The situation in Gaza is testing the durability of the International Criminal Court. Until now, the EU has clearly supported the court, and if it does not react now to what Hungary is doing, it will be largely accepting surrender in this battle." It should be remembered that, in addition to the United States and Russia, other major powers such as China and India also do not support the only international institution that can take criminal action against political or military leaders who violate the laws of war.

The visit also coincides with the ground offensive on Gaza announced this morning by the Israeli Defense Minister, who It has already accumulated dozens of deaths in bombings and mass evacuation orders throughout the Strip..

When contacted by ARA, Claudia Jiménez, a professor of international law at the Autonomous University, emphasized that the case "is further proof of the lack of independence of the judiciary in Hungary" because "it is the judge who must decide whether to enforce the arrest warrant, and the government cannot intervene." "EU countries are demonstrating the lack of separation of powers and that it is the political power that controls the judiciary," she warns. A few years ago, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had to retract his invitation to Vladimir Putin and assure him that he would not be arrested, after the judges made it clear that this was not within their jurisdiction.

The withdrawal process involves first passing a law in the Parliament, dominated by Orbán's Fidesz party, and then notifying the UN Secretary-General by letter. The withdrawal takes effect a year later. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp reminded the NATO ministers meeting in Brussels that as long as Hungary remains a member of the court, it must respect its obligations.