Netanyahu’s flight to US goes viral: avoided countries to escape arrest

Benjamin Netanyahu followed an unusual route while traveling by plane to the United States, where he will address the UN General Assembly and meet with US President Donald Trump. The reason for this strange flight is that the Israeli Prime Minister had to avoid countries that could potentially execute the international arrest warrant pending against him for war crimes. The journey took longer and the flight went… viral!

Netanyahu’s flight to US that went viral

Netanyahu departed from Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening (24/9) bound for New York. The flight, which under normal circumstances would have passed over several European countries, ultimately followed a route along the Mediterranean and passed through the Strait of Gibraltar. Specifically, according to FlightRadar24, the aircraft flew briefly over Greece and Italy, but completely avoided French and Spanish airspace, resulting in a longer journey.

As CNN reports, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has not officially commented on the choice of this route, while two weeks ago it had announced that certain journalists and members of Netanyahu’s entourage would not accompany him for “technical reasons related to capacity and security.” A French diplomatic source confirmed that France had approved an Israeli request for passage through its airspace, however “they ultimately decided to follow another route and we don’t know the reason“.

It should be noted that the International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last November, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Obviously, the possibility of forced landing and arrest in case the aircraft passed over countries–members of the International Criminal Court appears to have weighed heavily in the decisions regarding the route.