From Brazil to Sri Lanka, Palestinian group hunts Israeli ‘war criminals’

For over a year, Israeli soldiers have flaunted their war crimes in Gaza with brazen arrogance, shamelessly posting videos of their actions on social media. But last week, the tide began to turn when a Brazilian court took unprecedented steps to hold one such soldier accountable.

On January 12, an Israeli soldier’s vacation in Brazil was abruptly interrupted by eight frantic calls from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, consuls, and his family.

Upon returning the calls, Yuval Vagdani learned that his own social media posts—which shamelessly showcased war crimes committed in Gaza—had led Brazil’s Federal Court to open a war crimes investigation against him.

The evidence in question, made public by Vagdani himself, shows the Israeli soldier casually planting explosives around a civilian house in Gaza, as well as the moment of explosion, according to The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), the NGO – named after the six-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces –behind the criminal complaint.

“I won’t go back to Brazil again,” the soldier told Israeli local media upon his escape, describing his ordeal in Brazil as feeling like “a bullet to the heart.”

“This was the hardest moment of my life; harder than Nova, harder than Gaza, harder than anything else,” Vagdani says in an audio recording that has been circulating ever since, where he concluded with a message urging Israeli soldiers against posting their actions in Gaza to avoid similar ordeals.

“No one wants to cut their trip short after just two weeks,” he adds, seemingly more concerned about his disrupted vacation than the lives destroyed by his actions.

While Vagdani evaded arrest by fleeing to Argentina –a country infamous for sheltering Nazi war criminals after World War II – the incident exposed a new accountability for Israeli soldiers who have long acted with impunity.

Upon returning to Israel, the soldier downplayed his social media post reviewed by Brazilian legal authorities as innocently portraying a “beautiful explosion” during an interview with an Israeli newspaper.

Since October 2023, the number of Palestinians killed by Israel has exceeded 46,000, with Vagdani playing an active role as a reservist in Israel’s genocidal war.

Global backlash

The case has sent shockwaves through Israeli media, with some anti-Semitism advocacy groups predictably framing the investigation as “witch-hunt” against Israel.

The Brazilian court’s decision was prompted by a complaint by the Belgium-based HRF, which accused Vagdani of war crimes based on his self-incriminating social media posts.

HRF founder Dyab Abou Jahjah revealed in an interview with Glenn Greenwald that the plaintiffs in the case were the Palestinian owners of the house destroyed in Vagdani’s video.

The Foundation suspects that there was a “leak” whose source they were unable to identify, which has led the Israeli intelligence to smuggle the soldier to Argentina overnight to avoid arrest.

Israeli intelligence reportedly orchestrated Vagdani’s escape to Argentina, further underscoring the lengths to which Israeli authorities will go to shield their soldiers from accountability.

This aligns with a broader pattern: in similar cases, Israeli suspects have been covertly relocated to evade justice. The Hind Rajab Foundation has emerged as a relentless advocate for justice.

Modelled after the post-Holocaust Nazi hunters, like Simon Wiesenthal, HRF works with researchers and legal experts to track Israeli soldiers suspected of war crimes.

By monitoring soldiers’ social media activity and alerting local authorities when they travel abroad, HRF aims to close the loopholes that allow war criminals to evade prosecution.

Their legal strategy operates on two fronts: submitting evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and leveraging domestic laws in countries that have ratified the Rome Statute.

Brazil’s bold action, which bypassed the need for an ICC directive, represents a landmark victory for this approach.

Brazil’s legal breakthrough

Brazil’s Federal Court’s willingness to act independently under the Rome Statute is a significant legal milestone.

Despite being a signatory to the statute, most countries have been hesitant to prosecute war crimes committed abroad. By initiating its own investigation, Brazil has set a precedent that could embolden other national courts to follow suit.

“The judge saw the damning proof: pictures of him planting the explosives, videos of the explosion, and his own statements about it,” said Jahjah. “This case proves that national courts can—and should—act when international mechanisms fall short.”

“So far, we’ve been asking for that, but nobody really answered positively until now,” Jahjah says, explaining that the case could inspire judges in other countries to take similar steps.

“So far, we’ve been asking for that, but nobody really answered positively until now,” Jahjah says, explaining that the case could inspire judges in other countries to take similar steps:

“This happened in Brazil, and it sets a precedent. Now, a lot of judges might feel they can do that in other countries."

Experts agree that such actions could also instill fear among Israeli soldiers about the legal risks of international travel.

Mohamed Elewa Badar, Chair of Comparative and International Criminal Law at Northumbria Law School, emphasised the need for more domestic courts to adopt this approach.

“Universal jurisdiction is a powerful tool, especially in addressing ongoing genocide in Gaza,” he said.

The Israeli military’s response to the Brazil case has been telling. Rather than cautioning soldiers against committing war crimes, it advised them to avoid posting incriminating evidence online.

Israeli media outlets like Ynet have published travel guides for soldiers, warning them about the risks of arrest abroad and advising measures to conceal their identities.

To date, the HRF has filed over 1,000 cases to the international court based on evidence consisting of open-source footage Israeli soldiers have shared on social media.

They have fled to various countries, including Ecuador, Belgium, and Sri Lanka, where one soldier shared an Instagram video of himself boasting about the killing of a dead civilian he filmed.

For over a year, the world watched in shock as Israeli soldiers made unchecked use of social media as they documented their destruction in Gaza, sharing Instagram reels and TikTok videos of themselves basking in the sight of civilian homes set ablaze, lounging on Palestinian children’s beds, or posing with women’s underwear pulled from drawers they had rummaged through in the bedrooms of those homes —as Israel faced genocide accusations in the world court.

Many of these cases have revealed similar patterns of evasion, with suspects smuggled out of jurisdictions to avoid prosecution. Despite these challenges, HRF remains committed to dismantling the culture of impunity surrounding Israeli war crimes.

Global action

The precedent set by Brazil underscores the urgent need for a coordinated global effort to hold Israeli soldiers accountable.

“It always takes that first step”, said Jahjah. “That first judge willing to take the risk and say, ‘Look, actually, according to the book, I do not need to wait for the ICC.’ This is why it’s a huge legal breakthrough, and we are very hopeful because of that.”

In the latest development, the HRF has identified Israeli Major General Ghassan Alian in Rome, as revealed in a post shared on its X account on January 13.

Alian was the second high-ranking Israeli military official after former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who infamously referred to Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals” during the onset of Israel’s ongoing genocidal onslaught.

“Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell,” Alian said in a video statement on October 10, 2023.

The HRF says it has filed cases with the ICC as well as Italian authorities against the Israeli Major General, demanding accountability for the “pivotal role” he played in implementing the very same policies that cost former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrest warrants for war crimes by the ICC.

As the international community grapples with the atrocities in Gaza, cases like Vagdani’s highlight the potential for domestic courts to fill the void left by the ICC’s slow and often ineffectual processes.

For the Palestinians whose lives and homes have been destroyed, this is a small but significant step toward justice.