Israeli leader Netanyahu applauds Hungary's ICC exit on Budapest visit

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu applauded Hungary for its "bold and principled" decision to leave the International Criminal Court as he visited Budapest on Thursday, a rare trip abroad in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant.

Netanyahu, invited by Hungary's right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, faces the ICC arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza as Israel has expanded its military operation in the Palestinian enclave.

Hungary has rejected the idea of arresting the Israeli prime minister and has called the warrant "brazen."

In an announcement timed with Netanyahu's visit on Thursday, Orban said Hungary would withdraw completely from the ICC, an organisation set up more than two decades ago to prosecute those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

"This is no longer an impartial court, a rule-of-law court, but rather a political court. This has become the clearest in light of its decisions on Israel," Orban said at a news conference with Netanyahu where they did not take questions.

Netanyahu's office said he and Orban spoke on Thursday with U.S. President Donald Trump about Hungary's decision to withdraw from the ICC and discussed "the next steps that can be taken on this issue."

Orban invited his Israeli counterpart to Budapest in November, a day after the arrest warrant was issued over Israel's offensive in Gaza, launched after an attack by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas on southern Israel.

Israel has rejected the ICC accusations, saying they are politically motivated and fuelled by antisemitism. It says the ICC has lost all legitimacy by issuing the warrants against a democratically elected leader of a country exercising its right to self defence.

"You stand with us at the EU, you stand with us at the UN and you've just taken a bold and principled position on the ICC... it's important for all democracies to stand up to this corrupt organisation," Netanyahu told Orban.

The ICC's Presidency of the Assembly of State Parties expressed concern about Hungary's decision, urging it in a letter to continue to be a resolute party to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, it said in a statement.

EU SPLIT

The visit to Hungary was Netanyahu's second trip abroad since the ICC announced the warrants, following a visit to Washington in February.

As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court. Hungary ratified the ICC's founding document in 2001, but the law has not been promulgated.

Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp of the Netherlands, which hosts the ICC, said on Thursday that until its withdrawal from the ICC was complete, which he said takes about a year, Hungary must still meet its duties.

European Union countries have been split on the ICC warrant.

Some said last year they would meet their ICC commitments, while Italy has said there were legal doubts, and France has said it believed Netanyahu had immunity to ICC actions.

Germany's next chancellor Friedrich Merz said in February he would find a way for Netanyahu to visit without being arrested.

The ICC had also issued an arrest warrant against a Hamas leader Mohammed Deif whose death was confirmed after the warrant was issued. Prosecutors had also sought to arrest Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar. Both were killed before the request was approved.

The Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies, with 59 still held in Gaza. The Israeli reprisals following that attack have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, health authorities in Gaza say.

Hamas, designated a terrorist group by Israel and the West, condemned Hungary's decision to leave the ICC.