An Israeli army reservist's vacation in Brazil was abruptly ended after a pro-Palestinian legal group accused him of war crimes committed during the recent conflict in Gaza. Yuval Vagdani fled the country facing a war crimes investigation in Brazil, highlighting the reach of 'universal jurisdiction' which allows governments to prosecute serious crimes regardless of location.
An Israel i army reservist's dream vacation in Brazil ended abruptly last month over an accusation that he committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Yuval Vagdani woke up on Jan. 4 to a flurry of missed calls from family members and Israel 's Foreign Ministry with an urgent warning: A pro-Palestinian legal group had convinced a federal judge in Brazil to open a war crimes investigation for his alleged actions during the recent conflict.
A frightened Vagdani fled the country on a commercial flight the next day to avoid the grip of a powerful legal concept called “universal jurisdiction,” which allows governments to prosecute people for the most serious crimes regardless of where they are allegedly committed. The case against Vagdani was brought by the Hind Rajab Foundation, a legal group based in Belgium named after a young girl who Palestinians say was killed early in the conflict. Aided by geolocation data, the group built its case around Vagdani's own social media posts. A photograph showed him in uniform in Gaza, where he served in an infantry unit; a video showed a large explosion of buildings in Gaza during which soldiers can be heard cheering. The Hind Rajab Foundation has also filed complaints against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of crimes against humanity for using “starvation as a method of warfare” and for intentionally targeting civilians. Both Israel and Netanyahu have vehemently denied the accusations. Since forming last year, Hind Rajab has made dozens of complaints in more than 10 countries to arrest both low-level and high-ranking Israeli soldiers. Its campaign has yet to yield any arrests. But it has led Israel to tighten restrictions on social media usage among military personnel. “It’s our responsibility, as far as we are concerned, to bring the cases,' Haroon Raza, a co-founder of Hind Rajab, said from his office in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It is then up to authorities in each country — or the International Criminal Court — to pursue them, he added. The director general of Israel's Foreign Ministry, Eden Bar-Tal, last month said fewer than a dozen soldiers had been targeted, and he dismissed the attempted arrests as a futile public relations stunt by “terrorist organizations.” Universal jurisdiction is not new. The 1949 Geneva Conventions -- the post Second World War treaty regulating military conduct — specify that all signatories must prosecute war criminals or hand them over to a country who will. In 1999, the United Nations Security Council asked all U.N. countries to include universal jurisdiction in their legal codes, and around 160 countries have adopted them in some form. “Certain crimes like war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity are crimes under international law,' said Marieke de Hoon, an international law expert at the University of Amsterdam.'And we’ve recognized in international law that any state has jurisdiction over those egregious crimes.
WAR CRIMES UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION ISRAEL GAZA BRAZIL INTERNATIONAL LAW HUMAN RIGHTS
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