Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was received with military honours in Budapest today, April 3rd. His visit to Hungary, at the invitation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, marked a heartfelt celebration of the deep ties between the two nations. Netanyahu described the occasion as a “very moving day,” emphasizing that “the friendship between Hungary and Israel is stronger than ever.”
Orbán noted that while antisemitism in Western Europe has taken unprecedented proportions, nobody in Hungary has ever waved Hamas flags. Hungary, he said, has zero tolerance for antisemitism:
In recent years, Hungary has been an island of freedom in Europe, a determined guardian and standard-bearer of Judeo-Christian civilization … the Hungarian Jewish community is the third largest Jewish community in Europe in terms of population. I can confidently say that they are the safest in Europe today.
The Spectator Australia Europe columnist Mark Higgie hailed the sight of Israeli flags in Budapest, commenting: “Imagine the anarchy if this were London, Paris or Berlin. There’s nowhere in the West where Jews feel safer than Budapest.”
While some European countries have discussed ignoring the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) warrant against Netanyahu in limited scenarios, Hungary today opted for action rather than words, launching the process to withdraw from the Hague-based court altogether.
After reports hinted at this move on Wednesday, ahead of Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary in defiance of the arrest warrant, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the ICC was “no longer an impartial court” but a “political court.”
In a comment on X, Netanyahu said, “Hungary stood by Israel in Hamas’ murderous attack—and today, Hungary stands by Israel in the attack on the hypocrisy of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”
Criticism against Hungary’s decision soon flowed in, including from German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels:
This is a bad day for international criminal law.
A spokesman for the ICC also unsurprisingly stressed that Hungary “remains under a duty to cooperate” with the arrest warrant, which was issued last year over alleged war crimes in Gaza, while the Palestinian Authority called on Orbán to hand Netanyahu over “to bring him to justice.”
Meanwhile, Bulcsu Hunyadi, a researcher at the Political Capital think tank, told AFP the move is further proof that Hungary is “one of Israel’s closest allies and supporters in the EU.”
Indeed, Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar thanked Orbán’s administration “for the clear, strong and moral stand by Israel and the principles of justice and sovereignty,” adding that
The so-called ‘International Criminal Court’ has lost its moral authority after trampling on the fundamental principles of international law in its eagerness to violate Israel’s right to self-defense.
The process to withdraw from the ICC is supposed to last a whole year.
