Pro-Palestinian groups press for charges against Israeli soldiers who served in Gaza

Protesters during a demonstration in Strasbourg, France, October 2024

Amir Tibon reports in Haaretz on 16 October 2024:

Pro-Palestinian groups have increased efforts in recent months to prompt international legal proceedings against Israeli soldiers who have served in the war in Gaza.

Israel fears that the combination of these efforts and proceedings at the International Court of Justice, where Israel has been accused of committing genocide in Gaza, may end up exposing officers and soldiers to legal proceedings.

Last week, a pro-Palestinian organization in Belgium filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court, citing the names of about 1,000 Israeli soldiers and officers it says violated international law. The organization said it attached documents of these officers and men, collected from social media, to the complaint.

An Israeli source told Haaretz that legal and political officials are aware of the issue. However, the source said that Israel had not yet examined the list of names that the organization had sent or the alleged evidence.

Human rights lawyer Eitay Mack, who also specializes in international law, says that the chances of the complaint resulting in the ICC taking action against the soldiers and officers are quite low.

In August, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan asked the court to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but the panel of judges has not issued them.

Mack believes the court is in no hurry to consider alleged evidence against junior officers and soldiers when it is still reviewing the request to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

Mack says Israel’s main concern should be the list of soldiers getting “a life of its own” and be published around the world, which could result in legal action in certain countries.

“If the list includes people with citizenship of certain countries, it might be possible to act against them in those countries and prevent them from visiting them,” he says. “If there are people who are employed by foreign companies or plan to study abroad, they might try to hurt their livelihoods or academic studies.”

There are several countries in which local pro-Palestinian groups are pushing for legal proceedings against Israeli soldiers. In Norway, a human rights organization has asked for an investigation into all Israelis entering its jurisdiction to verify that they did not participate in war crimes in Gaza.

South Africa’s foreign minister has said that any of its citizens who served in the Israeli military should be stopped for questioning if they enter the country.

In France, pro-Palestinian organizations are working to identify Israeli soldiers with French citizenship to try and pursue measures against them. Several South American countries, which are often destinations for Israeli tourists after their military service, have seen similar efforts.

Whether these efforts are successful depends in part on the ICJ proceedings against Israel to determine whether it has committed genocide in Gaza.

The proceedings, initiated by a South African complaint against Israel, have gained the support of other countries and may affect world reactions to specific complaints against Israeli soldiers – especially if the ICJ rules that Israel committed or tried to commit genocide in Gaza. Such a ruling could clear the way for pro-Palestinian organizations in certain countries to label Israeli soldiers as parties to a genocide and demand investigations against them.

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