Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to travel to Hungary on April 2, his office said, despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and other senior Hungarian officials during his visit, before returning to Israel on April 6.
Orbán extended the invitation to Netanyahu despite an ICC arrest warrant issued last year. The Hungarian prime minister has strongly condemned the court’s decision, calling it “shameful.”
The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.
Hungary signed the Rome Statute, the international treaty establishing the ICC, in 1999, and ratified it two years later, while Orbán was prime minister.
However, Budapest has never adopted a convention related to the Rome Statute, due to its constitutional compliance, and therefore claims that it is not obliged to abide by the ICC’s decisions.
