Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited his Israeli counterpart to visit Hungary, defying an arrest warrant for issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Benjamin Netanyahu that other European states say they will honor.
Orban, speaking during his regular weekly interview with Hungarian state radio, said on November 22 that the ICC's decision a day earlier to issue the warrant accusing Netanyahu of "crimes against humanity and war crimes" committed during the war in Gaza was "outrageously brazen" and "cynical."
The ICC issued similar arrest warrants for former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas military leader who Israel claims to have killed but whose death the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist group has not officially acknowledged.
The ICC said Netanyahu and Gallant were suspected of using "starvation as a method of warfare" by restricting humanitarian aid while targeting civilians in Israel's war in Gaza -- charges Israeli officials deny.
Orban said the ICC move against Netanyahu "intervenes in an ongoing conflict...dressed up as a legal decision, but in fact for political purposes."
"Later today, I will invite the Israeli prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu, to visit Hungary, where I will guarantee him, if he comes, that the judgment of the ICC will have no effect in Hungary, and that we will not follow its terms," he added.
"There is no choice here, we have to defy this decision," Orban said.
Shortly after the ICC decision was announced, the European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said ICC decisions "are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU member states."
However, the EU's most powerful members, Germany and France, on November 22 reacted with restraint to the ICC warrants.
A spokesman said the German government will refrain from any moves until a visit to Germany by Netanyahu is planned.
"I find it hard to imagine that we would make arrests on this basis," Steffen Hebestreit said on November 22, adding that legal questions had to be clarified about the warrant.
In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine only said that France acknowledged the ICC's move and voiced its support for the ICC's independence.
"France takes note of this decision. True to its long-standing commitment to supporting international justice, it reiterates its attachment to the independent work of the court, in accordance with the Rome Statute," Lemoine said.
Hungary, a NATO and European Union member state, has signed and ratified the 1999 document. However, it has not published the statute's associated convention and therefore argues that it is not bound to comply with ICC decisions.
Netanyahu on November 22 thanked Orban for his show of "moral clarity."
"Faced with the shameful weakness of those who stood by the outrageous decision against the right of the State of Israel to defend itself, Hungary" is "standing by the side of justice and truth," Netanyahu said in a statement.
A right-wing nationalist in power since 2010, Orban has maintained close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has voiced opposition to the EU's sanctions imposed on Moscow after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Orban has previously said that Hungary would not arrest Putin either, despite the ICC arrest warrant issued on the Russian leader's name for war crimes for his role in deporting Ukrainian children.
Furthermore, he flew to Moscow in July immediately after Hungary took over the EU's rotating six-month presidency to meet with Putin, in defiance of the fellow members of the bloc.