[Blog] Risk of prosecution for Israeli soldiers in third countries

Last year, on January 26, the international Court of Justice ruled that plausible genocide has been committed by Israel in Gaza. On the other hand, in November last, the International Court of Justice issued arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes an crimes against humanity. 

On the ground however , the crimes have been committed by none other than  foot soldiers, generals and commanders. According to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry,  some 61, 000 people have been killed, 70% being women and children. It is a plain massacre of civilians. In addition, most of the residential blocks have been demolished, cultural centres, mosques and churches have been obliterated, hospitals,  health centres and care facilities have been turned into rubble. 

Many soldiers have enjoyed participating in the terrible massacre to the extent that they have gone so far as to post their war crimes in social media. In TikToK they could be seen gleefully bragging about their egregious actions, displaying bodies of Palestinians as trophies, destroying toys of children who have been martyred exposing and joking about female victims' garments and underwear before setting fire to homes and apartments. That is why some have called them the Tik Tok soldiers. Little did they realise that these could serve as evidence for their horrific crimes.

In fact , after their round of duty in Gaza, some have gone for vacations to unwind in other countries without realizing that 

international law would apply with regards to their loathsome and inhuman actions committed in Gaza. Quite a few have had unpleasant surprises. The first occured in Cyprus. A case was filed against a soldier vacationing  there. With mounting public pressure, the authorities started investigations. To avoid being imprisoned and judged, he was deftly smuggled by Mossad out of Cyprus. A similar case was filed against a soldier vacationing in Brazil. When investigations started, he fled to Argentina and from there to Israel. A similar scenario occurred in Sri Lanka and Thailand. Australia, on the other hand,  refused visa to an Israeli national who had participated in the Gaza war while New Zealand requires Israeli tourists to declare whether they  took part in the Gaza  conflagration before any visa is issued to them.

Behind the track of the war criminals, there is an organization,  the Hind Rajab Foundation, named after a 6 year old girl whose body was found in a car, together with her relatives , ridden with 335 American- supplied bullets. The Foundation has already filed  50 criminal complaints in different countries around the world for alleged war crimes against Israeli soldiers. It is focusing more on dual nationality soldiers as it is less complicated to bring a case against them in their countries of origin. Furthermore, the activists have compiled a body of evidence such as video images, social media posts, pictures of alleged crimes for 1000 soldiers which they have submitted to the International Court of Justice.

The question is : will Mauritius, being a party to the Rome Statute and the Geneva Convention, exercise its universal jurisdiction by carrying out due diligence while delivering visas to Israeli nationals, especially when we know that all Israeli citizens have to serve in the army as reservists for some time ? According to Kenneth Ross, former director of Human Rights Watch, "Any authorized court anywhere in the world can prosecute them for crimes against international law".

Azize Bankur