It is not just Israel’s leaders who must be careful when traveling abroad. Now soldiers who have served in Gaza appear to face an increasing risk of being arrested on accusations of war crimes in Israel’s assault on the besieged Palestinian enclave.
In a case that has sparked outrage in Israel and praise elsewhere, a soldier vacationing in Brazil fled the South American country earlier this month after a judge ordered federal police to conduct an investigation in response to a legal filing accusing the soldier of war crimes in Gaza. .
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement shared with NBC News on Monday that it had helped the former soldier leave Brazil on a commercial flight after what it described as “anti-Israel elements” requested an investigation last week.
“The Consular Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Embassy in Brazil contacted the Israeli and his family, and accompanied him throughout the event until his quick and safe departure from Brazil,” he said.
The Foreign Ministry further warned Israelis against posting on social media about their military service, saying that “anti-Israel elements may exploit these posts to initiate futile legal proceedings against them.”
The case, brought by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), a Belgium-based organization The organization, which seeks to document the actions of Israeli soldiers in Gaza and seek justice for possible war crimes, accused the Israeli soldier of “participating in mass demolitions of civilian homes in Gaza during a systematic campaign of destruction.”
“This is not a case of remote control,” said Maira Pinheiro, HRF’s senior attorney, in a statement shared on the organization’s website. “This individual actively contributed to the destruction of homes and livelihoods, and his own statements and behavior clearly align with genocidal objectives in Gaza.”
Citing Article 88 of Brazil’s Code of Criminal Procedure, which covers proceedings for crimes allegedly committed outside Brazil, Judge Raquel Soares Charelli ordered federal police to launch an investigation into the soldier on December 30, according to the news outlet. Brazilian news Metropoles.
HRF also said that Israeli officials had helped the soldier flee Brazil.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and a spokesman for Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declined to comment on the incident. Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.
Brazil’s federal police also did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for both Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The new case in Brazil has sparked outrage and alarm in Israel, which has vehemently denied accusations of war crimes and accused international courts of anti-Semitism for persecuting them.
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein announced that an urgent discussion would be held on Monday in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on how to protect IDF soldiers abroad from accusations of crimes of war, according to Israeli media.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid blamed Israel’s leaders for the possible prosecution of Israeli soldiers abroad.
“The fact that an Israeli reservist was forced to flee Brazil in the dead of night to avoid arrest for fighting in Gaza is a huge political failure of an irresponsible government that simply does not know how to work,” Lapid wrote in a post on X on Sunday.
Lawyer Yuval Kaplinsky, former director of the International Affairs Department of the Israeli State Prosecutor’s Office, described Israel’s response to the incident in Brazil as “exaggerations” that were “beyond our reach.”
“The facts are very, very simple. “All that happened in Brazil was that the federal judge decided based on those clips to only initiate an investigation,” he told NBC News in an interview.
“If a soldier did not take any video clips of himself committing activities that are considered war crimes or did not record himself announcing that he is engaging in activities that are a war crime, then he should not worry about being arrested.”
Some human rights advocates applauded the case.
“The Brazilian case should remind Israelis that war crimes are crimes of universal jurisdiction, meaning they can be prosecuted by any national court, even if there is no immediate connection to the conflict in Gaza,” said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch. Rights monitoring.
United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said in a post on X that legal action in Brazil and elsewhere was “necessary and overdue.”
The Associated Press contributed.
