Israeli leader Netanyahu will visit Hungary, defying an international arrest warrant

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Hungary on Wednesday to meet with its nationalist prime minister despite an international arrest warrant for the Israeli leader over the war in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu's four-day visit to Budapest is a sign of both his close relationship with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the latter's growing hostility toward international institutions like the International Criminal Court, of which Hungary is a member.

Orbán, a conservative populist and close Netanyahu ally, has vowed to disregard the ICC warrant, accusing the world’s top war crimes court based in The Hague, Netherlands, of “interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes.”

Members of Orbán's government have suggested that Hungary, which became a signatory to the court in 2001, could withdraw. Currently, all countries in the 27-member European Union are signatories, and all members are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil. But the court relies on member countries to enforce that.

The ICC, the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide, issued the arrest warrant in November for Netanyahu as well as for his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza after the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them children, have been killed during the Israeli military’s response, which it resumed last month while shattering a ceasefire.

The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid to Gaza, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas — charges that Israeli officials deny.

The ICC has criticized Hungary's decision to defy its warrant for Netanyahu. The court's spokesperson, Fadi El Abdallah, said it's not for parties to the ICC “to unilaterally determine the soundness of the Court’s legal decisions.”

Participating states have an obligation to enforce the court’s decisions, El Ebdallah told The Associated Press in an email, and may consult with the court if they disagree with its rulings.

Orbán, regarded by critics as the EU's most intransigent spoiler in the bloc's decision-making, is seen as using some of the tactics that Netanyahu has been accused of employing in Israel: subjugation of the judiciary, antagonism toward the EU and cracking down on civil society and human rights groups.

The two leaders are practitioners of “illiberal” governance — a term adopted by Orbán rejecting the tenets of liberal democracy — and are allied with U.S. President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order in February imposing sanctions on the ICC over its investigations of Israel.

For Netanyahu, the visit to Hungary offers another opportunity to defy the ICC warrant and project an image of statesmanship while he faces mounting protests at home.

He has faced mass protests by Israelis who fear his decision to resume the war endangers the lives of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. He has also sparked anger by trying to fire or sideline top officials in what critics view as a power grab and an attack on state institutions.

Along with resuming its offensive in Gaza last month, Israel halted all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to the territory’s 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to release more hostages and accept proposed changes to the truce agreement.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, the head of global research, advocacy and policy of human rights group Amnesty International, said in a statement that Hungary must arrest Netanyahu if he travels there and hand him over to the ICC.

“Hungary’s invitation shows contempt for international law and confirms that alleged war criminals wanted by the ICC are welcome on the streets of a European Union member state,” Guevara-Rosas said.

Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said Hungary allowing Netanyahu's visit "would be Orban’s latest assault on the rule of law, adding to the country’s dismal record on rights.”

In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Putin visited Mongolia, which is also a member of the ICC, in September last year, but he wasn't arrested. Last year, judges found that the country failed to uphold its legal obligations and referred the matter to the court’s oversight body.

Associated Press writers Molly Quell in Amsterdam and Joseph Krauss contributed to this report.

FILE - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend a press conference after their meeting in Jerusalem, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, Pool, File)

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban chat as they attend a signing ceremony in the Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. (Balazs Mohai/MTI via AP, File)

Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers.

Microsoft accused one of the workers in a termination letter Monday of misconduct "designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.” Microsoft says the other worker had already announced her resignation, but on Monday it ordered her to leave five days early.

The protests began Friday when Microsoft software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad walked up toward a stage where an executive was announcing new product features and a long-term vision for Microsoft's AI ambitions.

“You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military," Aboussad shouted at Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. "Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”

The protest forced Suleyman to pause his talk while it was being livestreamed from Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington. Among the participants at the 50th anniversary of Microsoft's founding were co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft said Suleyman calmly tried to de-escalate the situation. “Thank you for your protest, I hear you,” he said. Aboussad continued, shouting that Suleyman and “all of Microsoft” had blood on their hands. She also threw onto the stage a keffiyeh scarf, which has become a symbol of support for Palestinian people, before being escorted out of the event.

A second protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a later part of the event.

Aboussad, based at Microsoft's Canadian headquarters in Toronto, was invited on Monday to a call with a human resources representative at which she was told she was being fired immediately, according to the advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, which has protested the sale of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to Israel.

An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.

In its termination letter, Microsoft told Aboussad she could have raised her concerns confidentially to a manager. Instead, it said she made “hostile, unprovoked, and highly inappropriate accusations” against Suleyman and the company and that her “conduct was so aggressive and disruptive that you had to be escorted out of the room by security.”

Agrawal had already given her two weeks notice and was preparing to leave the company on April 11, but on Monday a manager emailed that Microsoft "has decided to make your resignation immediately effective today.”

It was the most public but not the first protest over Microsoft's work with Israel. In February, five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with CEO Satya Nadella for protesting the contracts.

“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” said a statement from the company Friday. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”

Microsoft had declined to say Friday whether it was taking further action, but Aboussad and Agrawal expected it was coming after both lost access to their work accounts shortly after the protest.

Dozens of Google workers were fired last year after internal protests over a contract it also has with the Israeli government. Employee sit-ins at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California targeted a $1.2 billion deal known as Project Nimbus providing AI technology to the Israeli government.

The Google workers later filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to get their jobs back.

CORRECTS DATE - A pro-Palestinian demonstrator, Ibtihal Aboussad, is escorted away by security as they interrupt Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during a presentation of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, ahead of a 50th Anniversary presentation at Microsoft headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)