Benjamin Netanyahu’s Plane Made a Strange Detour on the Way to New York: Here’s Why

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to New York on Thursday morning, and while his attendance at the UN General Assembly, alongside meetings with President Trump and other world leaders, is sure to make headlines, the route he chose to fly to the United States has generated significant attention today.

Netanyahu flew to New York on Israel’s very own version of Air Force One, a 25-year-old Boeing 767 which is commonly known as the ‘Wings of Zion.’

The Israeli military aircraft departed Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport at around 5:13 am on September 25, according to publicly available information from the flight tracking website Flight Radar 24.

The plane climbed to a cruising altitude of 36,000 feet and then started in a northwesterly direction, making best use of the Earth’s curvature to shorten the flight distance as much as possible.

This flight path would have taken the Wings of Zion right across continental Europe, and notably over Spain and Portugal.

But that’s not the flight path that Netanyahu chose. As the plane approached the Spanish Balearic islands, the plane seemingly veered off course, taking a southerly flight path, which saw it fly around Spain and Portugal.

At one point, the plane flew directly across the narrow Strait of Gibraltar which lies between Spain and Morocco, rather than overflying either of these countries.

Once this careful air choreography had been completed, the Wings of Zion then flew northwards to rejoin its planned flight path across the North Atlantic, eventually arriving in New York JFK at 11:10 am (EDT).

The reason for this bizarre routing, it appears, is all down to an arrest warrant that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued for Netanyahu last November.

The arrest warrant accuses Netanyahu of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with events that took place in Gaza between October 2023 and May 2024, including allegations of starvation as a form of warfare and intentionally directing attacks on civilian targets.

Any country that is a member state of the ICC and has legally recognized its jurisdiction by ratifying the Rome Statute could be obliged to enforce the arrest warrant on Netanyahu if in a position to do so.

That being said, just because a country is meant to enforce an arrest warrant, doesn’t necesarily mean that they would.

For example, Italy is an ICC member state and has ratified the Rome Statute, but the Wings of Zion, the Italian mainland, and Sardinia, on Thursday morning, so Netanyahu clearly wasn’t concerned that he faced arrest in Italy.

That’s because the Italian government has been very clear that it won’t enforce the arrest warrant on Netanyahu due to political immunity concerns.

Spain, however, does not share those same concerns and has strongly indicated that it would enforce the arrest warrant. Portugal has also diplomatically stated that it would “fulfil its international obligations” – in other words, it would enforce the arrest warrant.

Other countries that have indicated they would enforce the arrest warrant on Netanyahu include the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium, as well as Ireland. Meanwhile, France has raised some concerns, and Hungary has explicitly stated that it wouldn’t enforce the arrest warrant.