5 days ago
Caught In Belgium: Universal Jurisdiction And The IDF
Two soldiers find themselves in Belgium attending the Tomorrowland festival in Boom, Belgium. Entertainment beckons. The festival, held near Antwerp, attracts somewhere in the order of 400,000 guests over the course of two weekends. The two in question are members of the Israeli Defense Forces, said to be waving a flag of the Israeli Givati Brigade. The gesture is not prudent, given the exploits of that particular unit in the Gaza campaign of flattening and demolishing Palestinian infrastructure, civilian and all.
A local, rabble-rousing outfit called the Hind Rajab Foundation, paired with the Global Legal Action Network (Glan), got vexed with the whole display. On July 19, they urged Belgian authorities to arrest the two flag wavers. They were allegedly 'indirectly implicated in some of the most egregious crimes committed during Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza.' A keen eye was focused on the Givati flag, one 'publicly displayed in the heart of Belgium'. Far from merely being a military, it had 'become, for millions, a symbol of impunity, destruction, and ethnic cleansing.'
The HRF, having identified an opportunity, were heartened by the arrests, despite an announcement from the Belgian public broadcaster, RTBF, that the two had been released after questioning. 'It signals that Belgium has recognized universal jurisdiction under international law and is treating allegations with the seriousness it deserves. At a time when too many governments remain silent, this action sends a clear message: credible evidence of international crimes with a legal response – not political difference.'
HRF director and founder Dyab Abou Jahjah, seeing the stirring, if limited precedent in the move, told the Middle East Eye that 'this was a major milestone' within the broader context of accountability. 'This is the first time that a European country acknowledges universal jurisdiction against Israeli soldiers and acts upon it in a forceful way, arrests them, and brings them to a police station to interrogate them.'
In a post on Instagram, the foundation also ruminated on whether this might be 'a turning point in the global pursuit of accountability'. The motivations behind the HRF are clear: 'To the victims and survivors of Gaza: we see you, we hear you, and we carry your demands for justice forwards.' The group's campaign has certainly begun to trouble Israeli officials, apparently prompting Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli to cancel his visit to the European Parliament in Brussels earlier this year.
That Belgium recognised such jurisdiction was hardly novel. The law concerning the punishment of serious violations of international humanitarian law of June 16, 1993 established the principle of universal jurisdiction in Belgium, enabling prosecutions to be taken against alleged violators of international humanitarian law irrespective of whether they were in Belgian territory or otherwise. In 2003, the law amending the Belgian Criminal Code focused on criminalising genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture.
In this case, the prosecutors were satisfied that they had jurisdiction because of Article 14/10 of the Preliminary Title of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which came into force on April 28, 2024. The article explicitly grants Belgian courts jurisdiction to try crimes committed outside Belgium based on such international instruments as the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Convention against Torture of 1984.
One of the arrested Israelis complained after the arrest, suggesting they had been manhandled. 'The officers hit us, we got blows to the face,' one of them told Israel's Channel 12 news. 'They took us to a secret police station in the compound.' That such treatment is meted out by their own colleagues to Palestinians on a daily basis in the occupied territories was not an irony to appreciate.
The arrests did worry a number of Israel's defenders. 'This is a serious incident that requires an immediate response from the State of Israel, including considering diplomatic measures against the Belgian ambassador,' claimed the Israeli Reservists Generation of Victory organisation. The body further went on to castigate internal critics of Israel's war policies such as former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and leader of the Israeli Democrats Party, Yair Golan, accusing them of pursuing a 'toxic media discourse'.
Olmert had publicly decried the proposal by the IDF for creating a 'humanitarian city' in Gaza as nothing better than a dressed-up version of a concentration camp. Golan had also drawn the ire of some commentators for telling Kan Reshet Bet's This Morning program in mid-May that, 'A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies for a hobby, and does not set goals involving the expulsion of populations.'
The European Jewish Association also expressed concerns that the 'soldiers were carrying out lawful duties in defence of their country, duties comparable to those of any soldier serving in a democratic nation.' That may have been perceived as such, but an absolute fidelity to following orders is no longer fashionable in international jurisprudence, a point sometimes missed even in democratic states.
On the glittery surface, apprehending two soldiers of the IDF and temporarily detaining them seems a case of pruning rather than uprooting. The problems remain, festering away in the suffering feats of endurance for those in Gaza. Israel's authorities and the IDF know it. Arresting travelling soldiers for questioning under the principle of universal jurisdiction and a suspicion of committing crimes against humanity has its role, but such a justice is poor if it leaves the prominent leaders and commanders at large. The true criminality of any broad enterprise always lies with the decision makers. Those decision makers continue to elude legal capture or ostracising, despite international arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court. At least for the moment.
