{"id":423538,"date":"2025-04-04T12:43:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T10:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/04\/04\/orban-netanyahu-ungherica-cpi\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T14:15:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:15:49","slug":"orban-to-withdraw-from-the-international-criminal-court-netanyahu-congratulates-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/04\/04\/orban-to-withdraw-from-the-international-criminal-court-netanyahu-congratulates-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Orb\u00e1n to withdraw from the International Criminal Court; Netanyahu congratulates him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – A “courageous and principled<\/strong>” decision: with these words,\u00a0Benjamin Netanyahu<\/strong>, the Israeli prime minister over whose head hangs an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC)<\/strong>, hailed the move by his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> who announced that he would withdraw his country from the UN tribunal<\/strong>, which is considered a politicized body.<\/p>\n

Welcomed with full honors Benjamin Netanyahu<\/strong> in Budapest, where he went for a four-day state visit, host Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> announced yesterday (April 3) that he intends to take Hungary out of the International Criminal Court<\/strong>. As a party to the ICC, the central European country should instead arrest<\/strong> anyone who sets foot on its territory after having been reached by a warrant of arrest from the Hague tribunal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“This is no longer an impartial court;<\/strong> a court of the rule of law, but rather a political court<\/strong>,” the Hungarian prime minister said, speaking alongside his Israeli host during a press conference in which neither accepted questions from reporters. “This has become clearer in light of its decisions on Israel,” he continued, arguing that Budapest “cannot and will not engage” further with the court<\/strong>. Netanyahu responded by thanking Hungary for being “at our side” in both the EU and the UN<\/strong>, adding that “it is important that all democracies stand up to this organization,” which he called “corrupt<\/strong>” and “rotten<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\n

\u274c Hungary is withdrawing from the @IntlCrimCourt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ICC has become a political tribunal, evident in its witch-hunt against Prime Minister @netanyahu<\/a>. We will not support a court that targets democracies like Israel for political gain. Hungary defends the rule of law. Hungary\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/gMc57m332D<\/a><\/p>\n

– Viktor Orb\u00e1n (@PM_ViktorOrban) April 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A development that is certainly no surprise: Orb\u00e1n had announced his intention to welcome Netanyahu to Budapest as early as last November, as soon as the court issued<\/a> an\u00a0arrest warrant <\/strong>against him, which the Hungarian premier defined as a “shameless” attempt by the ICC to “interfere in an ongoing conflict for political purposes<\/strong>.” In response to yesterday’s announcement, the institution reiterated “that Hungary has a duty to cooperate<\/strong> with The Hague at least until the withdrawal is formalized, a process that could take several months.<\/p>\n

Technically, the ICC’s warrant should hold Netanyahu accountable for the devastating ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip<\/strong> (launched in the fall of 2023 and recently restarted by the Israeli premier himself after the breakdown\u00a0of the fragile ceasefire <\/strong>agreed with Hamas in January), which, according to the judges, show\u00a0a series of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Tel Aviv’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant<\/strong>, as well as three top Hamas leaders,<\/strong> all of whom have since been killed by the Israeli army, also received a similar restraining order. The Jewish rejected the court’s rulings, branding them as antisemitic and politically motivated<\/strong>, and in turn accused The Hague of losing all legitimacy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A position also adopted by the United States<\/strong>, where Netanyahu went on his first trip abroad last February after the arrest warrant was issued. The Israeli premier’s office said that the latter and his Hungarian\u00a0counterpart have been in talks with Donald Trump<\/strong> on the “next steps” regarding Hungary’s exit from the ICC.<\/p>\n

\"Benjamin<\/a>
Il presidente statunitense Donald Trump (destra) e il premier israeliano Benjamin Netanyahu (foto: Benjamin Neta via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But even in Europe, several leaders — including French President Emmanuel Macron,<\/strong> German\u00a0Chancellor designate\u00a0Friedrich Merz<\/strong>, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk,<\/strong> and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani —\u00a0<\/strong>publicly ruled out<\/a>\u00a0wanting\u00a0to\u00a0respect the court order<\/strong>\u00a0in the case of a visit by the head of government of the Jewish state.\u00a0A remark\u00a0of brutal realism on the point came today from Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever<\/strong>, who declared that he shared Orb\u00e1n’s decision (“I don’t think we would either”) and added that he did not believe “that any\u00a0European state would arrest Netanyahu if he were on its territory<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Nevertheless, the premier, who makes it “a matter of realpolitik,” deplored Hungary’s withdrawal from the court.<\/p>\n

There is, after all, a red line\u00a0linking the two strongmen in Budapest and Tel Aviv<\/strong>. Both are representatives of an ultranationalist right-wing and appear intent, on the one hand, on dismantling democratic structures at home<\/strong> – starting with the independence of the judiciary<\/strong> and the balance of state powers<\/a>, not to mention respect for critical voices within\u00a0civil society<\/strong> – and, on the other hand, on undermining\u00a0international law<\/strong>, of which institutions such as the ICC represent\u00a0the tangible embodiment.<\/p>\n

In a separate case, also opened by South Africa at the ICC, the Tel Aviv government is accused of collective punishment of the Palestinian people, ethnic cleansing, and genocide<\/strong>, while for years now, human rights organizations – both international (e.g. Amnesty <\/i>and Human Rights Watch<\/i>) and local (including Israeli ones such as Yesh Din<\/i> and B’Tselem<\/i>) – openly speak of apartheid<\/strong> to refer to the system of domination set up by the Israelis in the occupied territories<\/strong>, especially in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

The ICC, established in 1998 through the Statute of Rome<\/strong>, is the only permanent international tribunal empowered to try cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide<\/strong>. It comprises 125 countries<\/strong>, including all 27 members of the EU. Hungary is one of the court’s founders and ratified its statute in 2001, ironically during Orb\u00e1n’s first term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a state visit by the Israeli prime minister to Budapest, his Hungarian counterpart announced his intention for his country to withdraw from the Hague court, which about five months ago issued an arrest warrant for the leader of the Jewish state<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":423530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[25833,25890,27224,28877,30400,30669],"class_list":["post-423538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-benjamin-netanyahu-en","tag-court-penal-international-en","tag-law-international-en","tag-viktor-orban-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423538"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423552,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423538\/revisions\/423552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}