Albanese criticizes countries that allowed Netanyahu to fly over their airspace on his way to the United States.

1. JFrancesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, criticized countries that allowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fly over their airspace on his way to the United States, indicating that they may have violated their obligations under international law.

Albanese said on Wednesday that the governments of Italy, France, and Greece should explain why they provided "safe passage" to Netanyahu, whom they were theoretically obliged to "arrest" as an internationally wanted suspect when he flew over their territory on his way to meet US President Donald Trump on Sunday for talks.

It's worth noting that the three countries are signatories to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the Hague-based International Criminal Court in 2002, which last year issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel's war on Gaza. Albanese wrote on X: "Italian, French, and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action that violates the international legal order weakens and endangers them all. And it endangers us all."

Albanese was responding to a post by human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber, who had said the previous day that these countries had "violated their legal obligations under the treaty [Rome Statute], shown contempt for victims of genocide, and demonstrated contempt for the rule of law."

It should be noted that Netanyahu's current visit to the United States, during which he discussed the forced displacement of Palestinians with Trump amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations between his country and Hamas, was not his first visit since the ICC issued his arrest warrant. On February 2, Netanyahu traveled to the United States, which is not a party to the Rome Statute, becoming the first foreign leader to meet with Trump (on February 4, 2025) after his inauguration on December 20, 2025. That flight took a longer route, flying over US bases and avoiding countries that might arrest the Israeli leader, according to Israeli Ambassador to the US Yehiel Leiter, quoted in The Times of Israel in an article published the following month.

In the first week of April 2025, Netanyahu visited Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán in Budapest. Orbán had extended his invitation just one day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant, leading to Hungary's withdrawal from the ICC before the Israeli leader's arrival.

From Hungary, Netanyahu then flew to the United States for a meeting with Trump (on April 7), flying 400 kilometers (248 miles) further than the usual route to avoid the airspace of Ireland, Iceland, and the Netherlands due to concerns that they might execute the arrest warrant, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz at the time.

Under the law, ICC member states must detain persons subject to arrest warrants if they are on their territory.