While Hungary is unequivocally on Israel’s side as the ICC, having completely lost its moral compass, is charging the leader of the state waging a just war against Hamas with war crimes, other European countries seems to be less resolute on the issue.
At the regular government press briefing last week, answering a journalist’s question, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás described the decision of the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court seeking an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as ‘unacceptable’.
The minister said it was a political, not a legal, decision that discredits the ICC and shows that successive Democratic and Republican US administrations have been ‘wise in some respects’ in never wanting to be part of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
While Hungary has ratified the Rome Statute, it was never made it part of Hungarian law, so the arrest warrant cannot be enforced in the country to begin with, the minister reminded.
Gulyás stressed that it is not appropriate to use a court as a political tool, and it should be remembered that the
‘utterly ruthless, disgraceful and despicable terrorist attack’ suffered by Israel was the root cause of everything that is happening in the Gaza Strip.
As we reported earlier, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan revealed in an exclusive interview with CNN on 20 May.
ICC’s prosecution team is also seeking warrants for Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as well as two senior Hamas leaders: leader of the Al Qassam Brigades Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri and political leader of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh.
The announcement of Karim Kham has sparked widespread outrage among Israeli officials and their allies.
‘With what audacity do you compare Hamas that murdered, burned, butchered, decapitated, raped and kidnapped our brothers and sisters, and the IDF soldiers fighting a just war?’ asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, describing Kham’s decision as ‘absurd’.
President Joe Biden called the ICC’s move ‘outrageous’, underlining that ‘there is no equivalence—none—between Israel and Hamas’ and the United States will always stand with Israel against threats to its security. The Biden administration also signalled that it would seek bipartisan collaboration in Congress to slap sanctions on the ICC.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—a close ally of Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel—also criticized Khan’s decision, calling it ‘absurd and shameful.’ In a post on X PM Orbán also indicated: ‘Such initiatives will not bring the Middle East closer to peace, but only fuel further tensions’.
The statements by the Hungarian Prime Minister and Minister Gergely Gulyás stand in stark contrast to the reactions of some other European countries
to the ICC’s potential move. When Olaf Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, was asked earlier if the German government would enforce an ICC arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu Hebestreit said: ‘Of course. Yes, we abide by the law.’
On the other hand, the ICC decision has triggered outcry on major media platforms as well, with most commenters remarking that the ICC has been a moral failure by drawing a parallel between terrorism and a just war. Lumping Israel’s democratic leaders, waging a war to reclaim hostages and root out terrorists in Gaza, together with Hamas’ mass murderers, who raped and kidnapped hundreds on 7 October is ‘a slander for the history books,’ wrote the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board. ‘Imagine some international body prosecuting Tojo and Roosevelt, or Hitler and Churchill, amid World War II’, editorial said, adding: ‘If nations can’t wage just wars, evil prevails, meaning the ICC isn’t giving a win only to Hamas.’
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