Sense of impunity ‘absolute’: The NGO holding Israeli soldiers to account

After a soldier fled Brazil to avoid being detained for alleged war crimes he committed in Gaza and was captured on camera for social media, Israeli officials are concerned about their soldiers being detained after fighting in Gaza.

The Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) is the force behind this international effort for accountability.

HRF was established just five months ago and primarily relies on social media content shared by Israeli soldiers themselves to create cases.

One of the first of what HRF Chair Dyab Abou Jahjah predicts will be a large number of soldiers being accused of war crimes is Israeli reservist Yuval Vagdani, according to HRF founder and president Dyab Abou Jahjah.

After being “forced” to cut short his “dream trip” to Brazil, Vagdani claimed it felt “like a bullet in the heart” to find himself the subject of an international war crimes investigation after allegedly filming himself blowing up people’s homes in Gaza.

According to local media, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a significant influence on Vagdani’s evasion of war crimes investigations and potential prosecution, first by arranging his entry into Argentina and then moving him to the United States before eventually fleeing for Israel.

Soldiers are advised to avoid arrest abroad and conceal their identities while deployed by Israeli authorities and the media.

According to Al Jazeera, has it been questioned whether these additional measures include reservists receiving training on what might constitute a war crime?

providing the defense against them.

HRF had plenty of evidence to use when pursuing their charges under international and domestic law after 15 months of Israeli soldiers proudly sharing videos of themselves committing potential war crimes in Gaza.

Palestinian men are filmed in underwear, being abducted, looted, and even dressed up as women as they were looted, according to the videos and stills.

Abou Jahjah said, “This is about holding the law accountable.” “If individual soldiers feel they haven’t committed a war crime, that’s fine. Let’s hear their case. Everyone is in the right to do this, in your best interests. ”

A five-year-old girl was killed by Israel in a car in Gaza as she called for help after being surrounded by her dead family members and the bodies of the Palestinian paramedics who were also trying to reach her.

More than 1,000 cases have been submitted to the international court by the foundation named after her so far.

Abou Jahjah explained that HRF lawyers and online activists comb through the hundreds of thousands of photos and videos that have been uploaded to them online to verify their location, their metadata, and their chain of custody, from the soldier who recorded them to HRF.

HRF files legal documents, which are then submitted as evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in cases where the perpetrator is a dual national, under the second nation’s existing laws governing war crimes.

Predictably, HRF’s work has been met with fierce criticism in Israel, with some claiming that these legal procedures are “doxxing” (the unauthorised publication of individual identities) of soldiers who filmed themselves.

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli personally threatened Abou Jahjah after telling him to “watch your pager” in reference to the Hezbollah attacks in September 2024.

“I don’t really care,” Abou Jahjah said, “I’ve been at this for many years and, when you compare it to what’s happening in Gaza, threats against me don’t really amount to much. ”

HRF also maintains a catalogue of what it describes as the “perpetrators, accomplices and inciters” it is seeking investigations against for war crimes.

Impunity and persecution

They are proud of these actions, Human Rights Watch’s Milena Ansari said from Jerusalem regarding the potential war crimes broadcasts by soldiers on social media.

She told Al Jazeera, “Putting it online both increases the dehumanization of Palestinians and gives rise to actual celebration.”

The feeling of impunity has been present for a long time, particularly in Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank, but it has increased significantly since the beginning of Israel’s occupation of Gaza in October. ”

Political scientist Ori Goldberg said from Tel Aviv that many in Israel view the cases involving reservists as unjust and a continuation of centuries of anti-Semitism, which the Israeli state has claimed and used as weapon.

“Things are deteriorating within Israel,” Goldberg said. You can’t expect anything other than a 15-month genocide. Israel has been fundamentally changed.

Palestinians are no longer viewed as being human, if they ever were. To most people, Palestinians aren’t even vermin. Vermin has to be killed. Palestinians are less than that,” he said.

In that context, a few soldiers “letting off steam” during a war that none feels responsible for, where the only victims were Palestinian, was understandable to many within Israel, Goldberg said

According to Goldberg, the government and the media are “spinning this as the world against Israel.”

“It’s the persecution of the Jews, all over again,” he said.

Source: Aljazeera