Responding to reports that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has invited and plans to host Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hungary on Wednesday, Stephen Bowen, Executive Director, Amnesty International Ireland said:
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is an alleged war criminal, who is accused of using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally attacking civilians and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts. Should Netanyahu land in Hungary tomorrow, Ireland must call on the country, as a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to arrest him and hand him over to the Court.
“European and global leaders must end their shameful silence and inaction, and call on Hungary to arrest Netanyahu during a visit which will otherwise make a mockery of the suffering of Palestinian victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its entrenched system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls. Failure to do so would further embolden Israel and display blatant disregard of the international laws that protect us all.”
Background
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as al-Qassam brigades commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Since then, leaders from ICC member states France, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Poland have stated or implied that they would not arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to their respective countries. The United States has also enacted sanctions against the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan.
A cornerstone principle of the ICC’s founding Rome Statute is that all individuals subject to ICC arrest warrants must be arrested and surrendered to the Court without recourse to immunity when they are within the jurisdiction of ICC member states, including on their territory.