The Interrupted Vacation: A reservist’s brush with war crimes allegations
In a dramatic turn of events, a reservist in the Israeli Army, Yuval Vagdani, found his vacation in Brazil abruptly disrupted by accusations of war crimes committed in Gaza. Vagdani, who had been enjoying his time in Brazil, was rudely awoken on January 4 to a flurry of missed calls from his family and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The urgency in their voices was palpable—a pro-Palestinian legal group had successfully persuaded a federal judge in Brazil to open an investigation into his alleged involvement in the demolition of civilian homes in Gaza.
The legal group in question, the Hind Rajab Foundation, named after a young Palestinian woman reportedly killed by Israeli fire while fleeing Gaza City, had pieced together their case against Vagdani using his own social media posts. A photograph showed him in uniform in Gaza, where he served in an infantry unit, while a video captured the sound of soldiers cheering as buildings in Gaza were blown up. Vagdani, a survivor of the devastating Hamas attack on a music festival in Israel on October 7, 2023, described the accusation as feeling like “a bullet to the heart” in an interview with an Israeli radio station. Fearing the reach of universal jurisdiction—a legal concept that allows governments to prosecute individuals for serious crimes regardless of where they were committed—Vagdani fled Brazil the next day on a commercial flight.
The Hind Rajab Foundation is part of a broader movement targeting both high-ranking Israeli military officials and lower-ranking soldiers. Since its formation last year, the group has filed dozens of complaints in over ten countries. While these efforts have yet to result in any arrests, they have prompted Israel to tighten restrictions on military personnel’s use of social media. Soldiers are now prohibited from sharing details about their military service or travel plans online, and those below a certain rank cannot be identified in news articles or have their faces shown. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has dismissed these attempts as a futile public relations strategy by “terrorist organizations.”
The concept of universal jurisdiction is not new. Rooted in the 1949 Geneva Conventions, it mandates that signatories must either prosecute war criminals or extradite them to a country that will. By 1999, the United Nations Security Council had called on all member states to incorporate universal jurisdiction into their legal frameworks, a move that around 160 countries have since implemented. Experts like Marieke de Hoon, an international law specialist at the University of Amsterdam, emphasize that certain crimes—such as war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity—are universally recognized and fall under the jurisdiction of any state. This principle was famously invoked in the case of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust, who was abducted from Argentina by Mossad agents in 1960 and later tried and executed in Israel.
The power of universal jurisdiction, however, is not without limits. In the Netherlands, where Hind Rajab has filed over a dozen complaints, the law requires that either the victim or the accused must have Dutch nationality, or the suspect must be present in the country throughout the investigation. These conditions have likely shielded Israeli tourists from prosecution. Of the 11 complaints filed against 15 Israeli soldiers, most have been dismissed, often because the accused were only in the country briefly. Two cases involving four soldiers remain pending. Despite these hurdles, Haroon Raza, a cofounder of Hind Rajab, remains undeterred. “It could take 10 years. It could be 20 years. No problem. We are ready to be patient,” he said from his office in Rotterdam.
The use of social media as a tool for gathering evidence has been a game-changer in these cases. Vagdani’s own posts, for instance, were central to the case against him. Similarly, European courts have convicted members of the Islamic State group of crimes committed in Syria, relying heavily on videos and other online content. While Vagdani does not appear in the video in question and denies carrying out the demolition himself, the mere association has been enough to land him in the crosshairs of international justice. His case highlights the enduring impact of social media on modern warfare and the legal battles that often follow in its wake. In a world where jurisdiction knows no borders, the past can catch up with even the most unsuspecting individuals, turning a dream vacation into a waking nightmare.
Jose Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
