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Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar said that his government will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he steps foot in the country, joining roughly a dozen other European countries now off-limits for the man wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Magyar, who takes office next month, said that he is ending the country’s withdrawal from the ICC and, as a result, will carry out its obligations as a party to the ICC statute.
“I made myself clear to the Israeli prime minister,” said Magyar, per a translation by Al Jazeera. “If someone is a member of the ICC, and a person who is wanted enters our country, then they must be taken into custody.”
He said that his government can simply halt the process of withdrawal before it becomes official in June.
Magyar is a center right politician who won in a shock defeat of longtime far right dictatorial Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, earlier this month. The pledge to arrest Netanyahu is a huge departure for Hungary, as Netanyahu and Orbán were close allies.
Netanyahu, like President Donald Trump, had endorsed Orbán in the election, calling him a “true friend of Israel.” The politicians share a commitment to nationalist political views.
Netanyahu visited Orbán in Hungary last year, during which time the Hungarian government announced that it was exiting from the ICC in reaction to the arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in late 2024.
Magyar’s announcement appeared to confirm that Israeli officials were lying when Israel’s ambassador to Hungary, Maya Kadosh, said that Magyar invited Netanyahu to visit Hungary during an upcoming commemoration of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.
Magyar said that other leaders were invited, but that “we have a legal obligation to enforce the court’s rulings, and I’m sure [Netanyahu] knows this.”
Ahead of Magyar’s announcement, human rights advocates had called for Hungary to arrest Netanyahu if he were to visit the country.
“Despite its move to leave the ICC, Hungary is still a member country and is still obligated to arrest and surrender individuals wanted by the court,” said Alice Autin, an international justice researcher for Human Rights Watch, in a statement. “By flouting this obligation, for the second time in less than a year, Hungary would further entrench impunity for serious crimes in Palestine and once again betray victims who have been denied justice for far too long.”
Though the ICC has 125 member states, not all of them have committed to enforcing the ICC’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant.
The U.K. is a member state but reportedly threatened to defund the ICC if it followed through on threats to issue the arrest warrant against Netanyahu, according to the ICC’s prosecutor Karim Khan. French officials issued a statement shortly after the warrant was issued suggesting that Netanyahu has immunity because Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC.
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