Netanyahu’s visit to Budapest this week is an affront to the International Criminal Court, but European leaders and Commissioners are also engaging in Netanyahu’s strategy to whitewash Israel’s reputation abroad.

The Left in the European Parliament condemns the decision of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to host wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest this week and warns against a growing pattern of EU leaders helping to sanitise the Israeli regime’s image in Europe.

On 30 March, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem. The meeting coincided with the discovery in Gaza of a massacre of 14 Palestinian Red Crescent medics and ambulance drivers by the IDF. Meanwhile, German and Polish governments have signalled that they will disregard the ICC arrest warrant in a similar fashion to Orbán. EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas and Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič also met with Israeli leaders recently despite the genocide case against them in the ICJ.

Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Palestine Lynn Boylan (Sinn Féin, Ireland) said: “EU leaders should not be meeting with wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. They should be supporting the work of the International Criminal Court to enforce the arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. Other EU leaders must call out Orban and Mitsotakis for ignoring the ICC arrest warrants and giving diplomatic and political cover to a figure so instrumental in the genocidal campaign in Gaza. To remain silent is an act of extreme moral cowardice and complicity.”

MEP Kostas Arvanitis (Syriza, Greece) said: “Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ visit to the ICC war crime fugitive Netanyahu is another shameful moment for the Greek government and the European Union while the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza continues. The Greek Prime Minister’s silence on these crimes is an act of complicity. This is not a time for business as usual but for applying pressure on the Israeli government.