Israeli soldiers face growing risk of arrest abroad after Gaza service
Israeli soldiers in Golan Heights near the border with Syria on December 9.
(CNN) — A former Israeli soldier on vacation in Brazil fled the country suddenly after a case was brought against him there alleging he was responsible for war crimes while serving in Gaza.
The case is the latest in a series of lawsuits brought by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) that has tracked the activities of hundreds of Israeli soldiers serving in Gaza.
Last week, a Brazilian judge ordered police to investigate the soldier, based on the complaint brought by the HRF, accusing him of “participating in massive demolitions of civilian homes in Gaza during a systematic campaign of destruction.”
The lawyer who brought the case on behalf of the foundation, Maira Pinheiro, told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Monday that before the federal police could launch the investigation, “the Israeli government intervened to help him evade Brazilian authorities, which is very telling to his exceptionality.”
Pinheiro was quoted in Brazilian media as saying that as Brazil is a signatory to the Rome Statute, it is obliged to ensure that the crimes provided for in the statute (war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide) are investigated and punished.
The HRF is a pro-Palestinian NGO that says it is dedicated “to breaking the cycle of Israeli impunity and honoring the memory of Hind Rajab and all those who have perished in the Gaza genocide.” Rajab was a 5-year-old girl who was killed by Israeli tank fire while in her family’s car in Gaza.
The Israeli foreign ministry said Sunday that “following an attempt last weekend by anti-Israeli elements to investigate a discharged Israeli soldier who visited Brazil, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar immediately activated the Foreign Ministry to ensure that the Israeli citizen was not in danger.”
The Israeli embassy in Brazil had ensured “his swift and safe departure from Brazil.”
The foreign ministry added that it drew Israelis’ attention “to posts made by them on social media regarding their military service, and to the fact that anti-Israeli elements may exploit these posts to initiate baseless legal proceedings against them.”
Pinheiro said that HRF presented proof to Brazilian authorities that the Israeli soldier and members of his battalion had “posted about being involved in the controlled demolition of multiple residential homes,” among other evidence in the case.
She told CNN that HRF verified the evidence with a team of open-source intelligence investigators, “which is nowadays one of the main ways that international crimes and international human rights violations are being investigated.”
HRF has also sought the apprehension of Israeli soldiers visiting Thailand, Sri Lanka, Chile and other countries, according to its website. In the Sri Lankan case, the organization posted a photograph of the soldier and said that it had appealed to Sri Lankan authorities, the International Criminal Court and Interpol, demanding his arrest over the killing of a civilian in Gaza.
There is no confirmation that any Israeli soldier has been detained or arrested as a result of the cases it has brought.
The Brazilian case has kicked off a political furor in Israel. The leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, said: “The fact that an Israeli reserve soldier had to flee Brazil in the middle of the night to avoid being arrested for fighting in Gaza is a monumental political failure of a government that is simply incapable of functioning.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar shot back, saying: “Even the empty Lapid knows that what we are witnessing is a systematic and anti-Semitic campaign aimed at denying Israel’s right to self-defense. Countless international actors and many countries are complicit in this.”
“Moms Up,” a group of Israeli soldiers’ mothers, has written to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF Chief of Staff following the case in Brazil, saying: “We see you as the sole responsible party for removing the legal risk facing our children.”
It added that the Israeli military had been “forced to operate within a political vacuum and under pressure from extremist groups, without the vital legal protection that would safeguard its soldiers from malicious actors worldwide.”
A former senior officer in Israel’s Judge Advocate General’s department told CNN that there was a rising number of attempts overseas to bring charges against Israelis who served in the war, but so far none had resulted in arrest or trial.
He said that unlike in the past, activist groups were not going after high-ranking officers and politicians but ordinary soldiers. The lawyer declined to be identified for this report.
The Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, will discuss the action being taken against Israeli soldiers around the world on Monday.
The-CNN-Wire
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