The escape from Brazil of an Israeli soldier accused of committing war crimes in Gaza has reignited fears of prosecution abroad among the Israeli forces and their families.
“Moms Up,” a group of Israeli soldiers’ mothers, has written to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military chief of staff following the case in Brazil, pleading for help to escape justice.
“We see you as the sole responsible party for removing the legal risk facing our children.”
Reports said on Sunday that the soldier, a reservist who was vacationing in Brazil, managed to leave the Latin American country, despite a court order.
The Israeli foreign ministry on Sunday admitted that the Israeli embassy in Brazil had orchestrated “his swift and safe departure from Brazil.”
Last week, a Brazilian judge ordered police to investigate the soldier, accusing him of “participating in massive demolitions of civilian homes in Gaza during a systematic campaign of destruction.”
The case is the latest in a series of lawsuits brought by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), which has been pursuing justice for the Palestinian victims of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The group has filed several complaints in various countries against Israeli forces who participated in the genocidal war on Gaza. It also filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against 1,000 Israeli soldiers.
The Brazilian case has also caused a political furor in Israel, with the leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, saying, “The fact that an Israeli reserve soldier had to flee Brazil in the middle of the night to avoid being arrested for fighting in Gaza is a monumental political failure" of the current Israeli administration "that is simply incapable of functioning.”
I’m not an idealist. The more Israelis that leave Israel the sooner Palestine can be free.
Will not taking actions on murderers will make them retreat? This soldier wasn’t their as they fall back, they were there on vacation.
First, if you don’t leave a path open for retreat they fight to the death. Always let your enemy run. This soldier just showed that it isn’t completely safe for IOF war criminals to leave Israel. Vacation is different from retreat, obviously, but it still signals to anyone thinking of a retreat that it isn’t completely safe to leave anymore.
Second is more of an economic consideration. When a soldier goes on vacation outside of Israel then they aren’t generating economic activity inside Israel. Israel gets a lot of its economic activity from vacationers, and since Oct 7th they’ve hit a serious downturn on economic activity. Now soldiers will spend their money at home, which helps Israel’s economy.