The news that Benjamin Netanyahu was allegedly invited to Budapest for the October 23 commemoration has sparked serious controversy. The story also raises suspicions because there have been previous reports of disputed or unconfirmed invitations.
Hungarian Peter, the chairman of the Tisza Party, invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Budapest for the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the 1956 revolution on October 23 - at least that's what the Israeli Prime Minister's Office says, which released information about the two politicians' telephone conversation.
„"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Péter Magyar, the Prime Minister-elect of Hungary, had a cordial, introductory telephone conversation today," the Israeli Prime Minister's Office wrote in a statement.
According to the statement, Péter Magyar emphasized that he intends to maintain cooperation between the two countries – which Magyar himself also spoke about at his international press conference on April 13 – and extended an official invitation. According to the information, the Israeli Prime Minister accepted the invitation and sent a return invitation: he invited Péter Magyar to Jerusalem for an intergovernmental meeting.
The case quickly sparked a harsh social backlash, as the invitation could be controversial in light of Magyar's previous promises - it has already appeared online. a petition to prevent Netanyahu from coming to Budapest. The chairman of the Tisza Party indicated that they would initiate Hungary's return to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu in 2024 on suspicion of war crimes related to the Gaza operations. Our country withdrew from the ICC on the same day that the Israeli Prime Minister visited Budapest in the spring of 2025.
However, Péter Magyar's party did not explicitly confirm or deny the invitation. The politician later stated on his social media page that he had spoken to the Israeli prime minister on the phone, but made no mention of the visit or the invitation. An article in EUobserver also sheds light on this., according to which Netanyahu has previously made controversial claims about foreign invitations. The article cited as an example that the Israeli prime minister once said that the German chancellor had invited him to Berlin, but nothing has come of it since.
In light of this, it seems that Netanyahu wants to present himself in a better light, or at least create the impression that he still has really strong allies, „friends“ within the EU. This may also be important for him because Viktor Orbán lost on April 12th.
A Haaretz Israeli newspaper journalist, David Issacharoff told EUobserver that the easiest solution for Magyar would be to really count on someone from Israel to commemorate the 1956 revolution, rather than Yitzhak Herzog, invites the President of Israel.
