Hungary Condemns Genocide Court Case Against Israel
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary, one of Israel’s closest allies within the European Union, has condemned the “legal attack” launched against Israel for alleged “genocíde” at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said he told his new Israeli counterpart Israel Katz that “Hungary condemns the legal attack launched against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.” He said he also told Katz that “accusing a country that has suffered a terrorist attack of committing genocide is obviously nonsense.”
He referred to the October 7 attack by Hamas in Israel that killed some 1,200 people in the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust, also known as Shoah.
The ICJ, the United Nations’ highest judicial body, was to begin hearings this week in the genocide case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
The hearings, the first step in a lengthy process should the case go forward, will be the first time Israel has chosen to defend itself.
“Genocide,” the term first employed by a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent in 1944 to describe the German Nazis’ systematic murder of about six million Jews and others based on their ethnicity, is among the most serious crimes of which a country can be accused, experts said.
In its submission to the court, South Africa cited lawyer Raphael Lemkin to expand the definition of genocide.
POST-APARTHEID GOVERNMENT
South Africa, whose post-apartheid government has long supported the Palestinian cause, accused Israel of actions in Gaza against Hamas that are “genocidal in character.”
It claims the Jewish nation has killed Palestinian civilians, inflicted severe bodily and mental harm, and created for the residents of Gaza “conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.”
The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war against Hamas after the October 7 massacres.
However, these figures have been complex to verify, and it remained unclear how many have been killed fighting for Hamas, condemned as a terrorist organization by Israel and most of its allies.
Szijjártó reaffirmed Hungary’s support for Israel’s right to self-defense.
Hungary, which was a close ally of Nazi Germany during World War Two when some 600,000 Hungarian Jews were killed, now says Israel should be defended.
The foreign minister said Hungary believes the success of Israel’s current counter-terrorism operations is in the entire world’s interest so that a repeat of the “brutal terrorist attack” suffered by the country can be prevented.
HOSTAGES HELD
Szijjártó said he and Katz also agreed that Hamas needed to release all of its hostages as soon as possible. Hamas took some 240 people hostage on October 7.
Though numerous people have been released since in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, many remain in the hands of Hamas fighters.
Minister Szijjártó pledged that Hungary and Israel were also doing “everything” they could to secure the release of the dual Israeli-Hungarian citizen still being held hostage.
It comes at a time when Hungary has been remembering the 75th anniversary of Israel and the 150th anniversary of Budapest, the capital, in which the culture of the remaining estimated 100,000 Hungarian Jews in Hungary plays a crucial role.
Hungary’s rightwing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been personally involved in preventing Palestinians-supporting rallies in Budapest that he said amounted to pro-Hamas protests.
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