On December 5, Yuval Vagdani, an Israeli reserve soldier, left Brazil where he was on vacation. The Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that it had contacted him to organize his departure, while the soldier was the subject of an investigation launched by the Brazilian Federal Court on suspicion of war crimes.
This legal decision follows a complaint filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation, whose objective is to convict Israeli soldiers guilty of war crimes. The NGO said in a press release that it had filed a 500-page file and possessed videos, photos and geolocation data proving Vagdani’s involvement in the destruction of an entire neighborhood by explosives, outside of military clashes. Since the arrest warrant issued against Benjamin Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court, several attempts have been made to bring Israeli soldiers to justice as in Chile, Argentina or Sri Lanka. But these procedures are not ready to succeed, the Israeli authorities increasing measures aimed at preserving the impunity of their soldiers.
Thus, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee announced the holding on January 6 of an emergency meeting with representatives of the IDF and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs against the “ malicious sanctions and persecutions » of which the genocidal soldiers would be victims. According to RFI, “ military authorities now demand that soldiers who served in Gaza and Lebanon remove from social media any posts relating to the fighting that could incriminate them “. If the fact that an investigation was launched against an Israeli soldier abroad constitutes a first, the possibility of arrests outside Israeli territory already concerned the Israeli authorities. According to Liberation« On December 4, the Israeli army advised 30 soldiers who served in the Gaza war to refrain from international travel due to the risk of arrest. At least eight IDF members were even ordered to immediately leave countries like Cyprus, Slovenia and the Netherlands ».
Various Israeli media also publish advice to soldiers: the Times of Israel advises, for example, “ soldiers who plan to travel abroad not to post any images that would allow them to be located “. Others, like Yediot Aharonot in an article called “ Guide for Israeli army soldiers: how to act if arrested abroad “, advise avoiding countries whose legislation allows criminals to be prosecuted for serious misconduct regardless of their nationality and the places where the crimes were committed.
Several members of the Israeli government denounced the investigation by the Brazilian federal court as being an “anti-Semitic” act, once again exploiting the subject of the fight against anti-Semitism to continue their colonial policy without risking being disturbed. Parliamentary opposition leader Yair Lapid said: “It is not possible that IDF soldiers are afraid to travel abroad for fear of being arrested,” illustrating the colonial and Zionist consensus between the different camps in the Knesset.
These media and government actions to protect soldiers from any conviction at all costs are not new, as we saw with the release of soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner following far-right riots. But the very fact that they are taking place testifies to the depth of the movement in support of Palestine on an international scale to which governments are obliged to respond. At the same time, justice for the colonized cannot be obtained through international law and justice. With the Brazilian federal police already questioning the legitimacy of the investigation and demanding a thorough review, the likelihood of these procedures being successful appears low. While the genocide in Gaza can count on the support of the imperialist bourgeoisies, as illustrated by France’s decision not to apply the arrest warrant against Netanyahu, justice for the colonized peoples will not be obtained thanks to the institutions judicial, but by the struggle of the peoples and workers of the entire region for the liberation of the Middle East from the clutches of imperialism and the Arab bourgeoisies which support it.
