BRUSSELS: Belgium’s premier said the country would likely not arrest Benjamin Netanyahu despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister over the Gaza offensive.
Following a trip by Netanyahu to Hungary on Thursday in defiance of the warrant, Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever poured cold water on any expectations that other European nations would act differently.
“I don’t think there is a European country that would arrest Netanyahu if he were on their territory. France, for example, wouldn’t do it. I don’t think we would either,” the Flemish conservative leader said.
His comments in an interview Thursday with Flemish public broadcaster VRT referred to Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary, which rolled out the red carpet for Netanyahu despite his arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Hungary, under its nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, on the same day initiated the procedure to withdraw from the ICC.
But De Wever indicated that Belgium would not go so far as to pull out of the ICC, stressing his commitment to multilateralism and an international rules-based order.
Quizzed about the possibility of a plane carrying Netanyahu making an emergency landing in Belgium, De Wever first deemed it “highly unlikely,” and then said he doubted an arrest would be made in such a scenario.
One of Belgium’s opposition leaders hit out at the premier’s remarks.
“When an international arrest warrant is issued, when international justice speaks, Belgium must respond. Unambiguously,” said Paul Magnette, president of the French-speaking Belgian Socialist Party, arguing there was a “legal and moral obligation.”
Belgian human rights group CNCD 11.11.11 slammed De Wever’s comments as “unacceptable” and accused him of “undermining” international law.