THE HAGUE, Netherlands — An Israeli reservist’s much-anticipated trip to Brazil took an unexpected turn last month following accusations of war crimes related to his actions in Gaza.
Yuval Vagdani awoke on January 4 to numerous missed calls from his family and warnings from Israel’s Foreign Ministry. He learned that a legal organization advocating for Palestinian rights had successfully persuaded a Brazilian federal judge to initiate a war crimes investigation regarding his alleged involvement in demolishing civilian homes in the Gaza Strip. Clearly alarmed, Vagdani scrambled to leave Brazil on a commercial flight the very next day to sidestep the implications of “universal jurisdiction,” a legal principle allowing prosecution for serious crimes regardless of where those crimes occurred.
Vagdani, a survivor of the tragic Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival in October 2023, expressed his distress over the allegations, describing them as “a bullet in the heart” during an interview with an Israeli radio station. The case against him was initiated by the Hind Rajab Foundation, a Belgian legal group named after a young girl who, according to Palestinians, was killed early in the conflict by Israeli shelling as her family sought refuge from Gaza City.
The foundation presented evidence supported by geolocation data and Vagdani’s own social media activities. They included a photo of him in military uniform in Gaza as part of an infantry unit, along with a video capturing a massive explosion and the sound of soldiers cheering in the background.
Additionally, judges at the International Criminal Court determined last year that there was sufficient justification to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged crimes against humanity, particularly regarding accusations of using starvation as a tactic of war and intentionally targeting civilians. Both Israel and Netanyahu have categorically denied these allegations.
Since its inception, the Hind Rajab Foundation has submitted numerous complaints in over ten countries aimed at arresting both low-ranking and high-ranking Israeli soldiers. Thus far, these efforts have not resulted in any apprehensions but have prompted Israel to impose stricter rules on military personnel regarding their social media usage. “As far as we are concerned, it is our duty to bring forth these cases,” declared Haroon Raza, co-founder of Hind Rajab, from his office in Rotterdam. He emphasized that it is up to individual countries or the International Criminal Court to take subsequent action.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry director general, Eden Bar-Tal, commented that only a handful of soldiers had been targeted and trivialized the attempts at arrests as ineffectual public relations maneuvers by “terrorist organizations.”
The principle of universal jurisdiction has historical precedence. The 1949 Geneva Conventions require signatories to prosecute war criminals or extradite them to a nation willing to do so. In 1999, the United Nations Security Council urged all member states to incorporate universal jurisdiction into their legal frameworks, and approximately 160 nations have done so in various forms.
Marieke de Hoon, an international law expert from the University of Amsterdam, explained that international law encompasses certain crimes, including war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. “We’ve acknowledged that any state can exercise jurisdiction over these heinous offenses,” she stated. Notably, Israel leveraged universal jurisdiction to prosecute Adolf Eichmann, who was instrumental in the Holocaust. Mossad captured him in Argentina in 1960 and brought him to Israel, where he was executed.
Current events demonstrate that a former Syrian intelligence officer was found guilty of crimes against humanity in Germany in 2022 for overseeing detainee abuse. Furthermore, that same year, an Iranian was convicted by a Swedish court for war crimes against the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. TRIAL International, a Swiss organization documenting such proceedings, reported that 16 individuals faced conviction for war crimes through universal jurisdiction in 2023, with cases stemming from Syria, Rwanda, Iran, and other nations.
In light of Brazil’s pursuit of Vagdani, the Israeli military has instituted restrictions that prevent soldiers of lesser ranks from being identified in articles and require that their faces be obscured. Soldiers are additionally advised against sharing any details concerning their military roles or travel intentions via social media.
Most of the evidence presented by Hind Rajab’s lawyers in Brazil was extracted from Vagdani’s social media content. He remarked to an Israeli radio station, “From one house explosion they made 500 pages. They assumed I was responsible for murdering thousands of children.” Vagdani did not appear in the video footage in question and clarified that he had been in Gaza for “maneuvers” and was engaged in intense combat situations.
In recent years, social media has facilitated legal entities in gathering evidence. For instance, several Islamic State members faced convictions in European courts for crimes committed in Syria, with lawyers utilizing videos shared online, as explained by de Hoon.
However, the application of universal jurisdiction has limitations. In the Netherlands, where Hind Rajab has raised more than a dozen complaints, either the victim or perpetrator must possess Dutch citizenship, or the suspect must remain in the country for the duration of the investigation. These stipulations may shield Israeli tourists from prosecution. Dutch prosecutors have dismissed eleven claims against fifteen Israeli soldiers as some were only briefly present in the country. Presently, two complaints related to four soldiers remain open.
Efforts made in the United Kingdom in 2016 by activists to arrest Israeli military and political leaders for incidents during the 2008-09 Gaza conflict were also unsuccessful. Raza affirms that his organization will continue its initiatives, asserting, “It might take 10 years. It might be 20 years. No problem. We are ready to have patience.” There is no statute of limitations on war crimes, allowing these efforts to persist indefinitely.
