BRUSSELS — The EU should issue a full-throated rebuke of Hungary for leaving the International Criminal Court if it cares about protecting international legal order, the director of a Palestinian Oscar-winning documentary has warned.
Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced Budapest would quit the ICC as he welcomed Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu for a state visit, making it the first EU country to pull out of the top court. The ICC last year issued a warrant for Netanyahu, after finding “reasonable grounds” that he bore “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
“Hungary should not be doing what it did,” Basel Adra told POLITICO. “The EU should stand up for democracy and for the values of human beings and international law and to prevent the destruction of this system.
“This is a system that was created in order to protect all nations, all human beings, so now if they want to allow it to be destroyed, it’s their choice,” he said.
Hungary’s move has drawn sharp criticism from across Europe, with the European Parliament’s liberal Renew Group saying the decision violated EU law and demanding fresh sanctions against Budapest.
The move also comes amid broader attacks against multilateral institutions like the ICC by U.S. President Donald Trump, who in February imposed sanctions against several officials working for the court.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said the EU executive “deeply regret[s] that Hungary has decided to withdraw from the ICC,” while noting that it remains “strongly committed to international criminal justice and the fight against impunity.”
But in public, top Brussels officials have largely stayed silent on the withdrawal.
Adra, who visited Brussels this week to speak at the European Parliament and screen his documentary “No Other Land,” also reiterated that the EU should go further in its support of Palestinians.
So far, Brussels has approved limited sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. But it has resisted calls for more restrictive measures or suspending trade ties with Israel following the launch of its war on Gaza in 2023 after Hamas militants attacked Israel and took hostages to the coastal enclave.
Adra, whose documentary tells the story of Israeli demolitions of his native rural community of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, argues the EU should “at the minimum recognize now the state of Palestine” but also sanction “all settlers [who] are violating international law.”
The filmmaker, whose co-director was assaulted by settlers after the documentary’s release, laments that “nothing has changed” in practical terms for the local community since it came out and that attacks by settlers have stepped up since Israel began its full-scale assault on Gaza.
The Commission spokesperson reiterated the institution’s “strong opposition to Israel’s settlement policy,” arguing that “additional [sanctions] are under discussion currently” with EU countries.
Despite that, Adra said he still retains hope, driven by the prospect of protecting his local community. “We are living in the worst period for Palestine,” he said, but “we don’t have another land.”
“It’s my responsibility to stay on the land,” he said.
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