Belgian federal police on Sunday arrested two Israeli soldiers facing accusations of war crimes in Gaza following a complaint by two rights groups.
A statement by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) and the Global Legal Action Network (Glan) said the pair were in the country to attend a music festival and that legal proceedings were ongoing.
“The suspects were identified and arrested with a clear show of force at the Tomorrowland festival in Boom,” the groups said on Monday.
HRF director Dyab Abou Jahjah said: “Within the framework of the long fight for accountability, this is a major milestone. 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,” he told Middle East Eye.
Dearblah Minogue, Glan’s senior lawyer who worked on the case with HRF, said the arrests are “the biggest step for accountability since the beginning of the genocide, because law enforecement in Europe actually took action and arrested some suspects”.
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“I think we will now see a domino effect across Europe and around the world,” she told MEE, explaining that the accusations brought against the two soldiers include the use of human shields and wanton destruction.
The evidence was collected from the soldiers’ own social media feed.
“One of them posted videos of his unit blowing up property in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Minogue.
“The other posed next to a Palestinian who was being used as a human shield by his unit.”
‘Serious violations’
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office on Monday said it received two complaints on Friday and Saturday from the HRF and Glan, concerning “serious violations of international humanitarian law allegedly committed in the Gaza Strip by two members of the Israeli army” who were in Belgium to attend the Tomorrowland festival.
The prosecutor’s office said it has determined that it might have jurisdiction on the case based on the new Article 14/10 of the Preliminary Title of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which entered into force on 28 April 2024. The article grants Belgian courts jurisdiction over crimes committed outside Belgium based on the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Convention against Torture of 1984.
“In light of this possible jurisdiction, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office instructed the police to locate the two individuals mentioned in the complaint and to proceed with their questioning. After the interviews, they were released,” it said, adding that no further information will be provided at this stage of the investigation.
The Hind Rajab Foundation: Pursuing Israeli soldiers worldwide for Gaza war crimes
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The HRF is a Brussels-based NGO focused on taking international legal action for war crimes committed in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023. Its founder Dyab Abou Jahjah has told MEE that it has more than 8,000 pieces of evidence documenting war crimes by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
It has pursued war crimes cases against Israeli soldiers and officials in Europe and Latin America, but this is the first time its efforts have led to arrests.
“The Hind Rajab Foundation and Glan welcome this breakthrough with determination and humility,” they said in a press release.
“We will continue to support the ongoing proceedings and call on Belgian authorities to pursue the investigation fully and independently. Justice must not stop here – and we are committed to seeing it through.”
The arrests come a day after Belgium’s King Philippe described the situation in Gaza as “a disgrace to humanity”. He said in speech on Sunday that Belgium backs calls by the UN for “an immediate end to this unbearable crisis”.
