Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Hungary’s incoming leader Péter Magyar invited him to Hungary, in what would make a mockery of Magyar’s promises to respect international law.
Andrew Rettman
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Hungary’s incoming leader Péter Magyar invited him to Hungary, in what would make a mockery of Magyar’s promises to respect international law.
“Magyar … invited prime minister Netanyahu to participate in a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising [on 23 October],” said Netanyahu’s office in its read-out of their call on Wednesday (15 August).
“Netanyahu welcomed his remarks and accepted the invitation,” it said.
Israel’s ambassador in Budapest, Maja Kados, also posted the news on her Facebook page, which Israeli media widely reported.
But if true, such an invitation would be a drastic U-turn on Magyar’s election promise to stop Hungary leaving the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 2 June, which has a warrant out for Netanyahu’s arrest since 2024 on war-crimes charges in Gaza.
The last time Netanyahu was in Budapest, in April 2025, outgoing prime minister Viktor Orbán declared his country’s ICC exit.
For its part, Magyar’s party declined to confirm the invitation when emailed by EUobserver and by Israeli daily Haaretz on Thursday.
Netanyahu’s office also declined to reply to Haaretz’s questions.
But Haaretz journalist David Issacharoff said on X that Netanyahu had a record of ICC-busting invitation bluffs.
Magyar did not invite Netanyahu to Budapest. Netanyahu says he was invited to Hungary, just as he claimed Merz invited him to Berlin in a post-election congratulatory call – an invitation he is still waiting for https://t.co/BxVROOPyjH
— David Issacharoff (@davidiss) April 15, 2026
“Magyar did not invite Netanyahu to Budapest. Netanyahu says he was invited to Hungary, just as he claimed [German chancellor Friedrich] Merz invited him to Berlin in a post-election congratulatory call – an invitation he [Netanyahu] is still waiting for,” said Issacharoff.
Netanyahu’s office had claimed on 24 February 2025 that Merz had invited him in “open challenge against the scandalous decision of the International Criminal Court to label the prime minister as a war criminal”.
Meanwhile, Issacharoff counselled Magyar to defuse Netanyahu’s political bomb by inviting Israeli president Isaac Herzog to any anniversary instead.
“The easy way out for Magyar would be to just invite Herzog to this kind of ceremony — only Netanyahu and Magyar know what he was told or how he was ‘invited’,” Issacharoff told EUobserver.
“The precedent of the ‘Merz invite’ is striking of course”, he added.
If Herzog went instead of Netanyahu in October that would still show the irritant effect of the ICC.
Netanyahu has also taken long detours to avoid the airspace of ICC signatories in the EU, including France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain since his indictment.
Wing of Netanyahu
His ‘Wing of Zion’ plane flew mostly over the Mediterranean Sea and over the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar on his way to meet US president Donald Trump on 25 September 2025, for instance.
Netanyahu phoned Magyar after having strongly endorsed Orbán in last Sunday’s election.
And Netanyahu’s former top allies in EU talks have started receding from public life.
Orbán is still giving TV interviews, but he will not attend an informal EU summit in Cyprus on 23 April, for example.
His foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, who faces allegations he abused secret files, will not go to an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg on 21 April.
He has also gone incommunicado inside Hungary, but Hungarian media Telex saw him on his morning run on Thursday.
