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hind rajab foundation
International Legal Coalition Launched to 'Pursue Israeli War Crimes Suspects'
"Under international law, states have a duty to investigate and prosecute war crimes, yet these obligations have been systematically neglected," one of the initiative's founders lamented.
Mar 19, 2025
Lawyers from half a dozen countries on Tuesday launched a coalition dedicated to bringing Israelis and dual nationals accused of war crimes in Palestine to justice.
The U.K.-based International Center of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) hosted a launch event in London for the new initiative, called Global 195. ICJP said lawyers will "pursue Israeli war crimes suspects across the world" via arrest warrant applications and the initiation of legal proceedings including private prosecutions against implicated members and veterans of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as well as "figures spanning the entire Israeli military and political chain of command, from senior policymakers to operational personnel, who are directly or indirectly responsible for violations of international law."
Participants include attorneys from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Malaysia, Norway, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, where "advanced preparations have already been made to pursue legal action against British citizens suspected of joining the IDF or committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank."
For the past 18 months, ICJP has been collecting evidence as part of its Justice for Gaza campaign, including 135 eyewitness testimonies backed by open-source intelligence. Documented violations of international law include indiscriminate and disproportionate bombing of civilians, attacks on designated "safe zones,"s airstrikes targeting refugee camps, use of starvation as a weapon of war, and forced displacement.
"The obstruction of international legal institutions in pursuing individuals responsible for war crimes in Palestine, coupled with the failure of national police forces to fulfill their obligations under humanitarian law and universal jurisdiction principles, has allowed impunity for Israeli suspected war criminals to persist," ICJP director Tayab Ali said in a statement.
"Under international law, states have a duty to investigate and prosecute war crimes, yet these obligations have been systematically neglected," Ali added. "The launch of Global 195 is a necessary legal intervention to remedy this failure. By activating domestic legal mechanisms across multiple jurisdictions, we are ensuring that those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza are subject to legal accountability and no longer have anywhere to hide."
Huseyin Disli, vice president of the Worldwide Lawyers Association, noted that "no domestic court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli genocide war criminals, exposing the failure of the international legal order" and called the global legal community "incoherent in its goals."
Israel is currently the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case filed by South Africa, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which last November issued arrest warrants over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. However, key nations including the United States—which has not ratified the Rome Statute upon which the ICC is based—have ignored the warrants, and last month the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the tribunal.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed or wounded more than 175,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. On Tuesday, Israel unilaterally abandoned an eight-week cease-fire and resumed its assault on Gaza, killing more than 400 people including at least 174 children in airstrikes that wiped out entire families.
United Nations experts, international jurists, human rights groups, and others have found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, as well as crimes including indiscriminate and disproportionate killing of civilians, extrajudicial killing, torture, sexual violence including rape, use of starvation as a weapon of war, and forced displacement.
The launch of Global 195 follows the establishment last September of the
Hind Rajab Foundation, a Belgium-based legal group that pursues arrest warrants for alleged Israeli war criminals traveling abroad. The organization is named after a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed—along with six relatives—by Israeli forces in January 2024 while trying to flee to safety in a car. Two paramedics who tried to rescue her were also killed.
Israel Helps Soldier Flee Brazil Amid War Crime Allegations
"In Brazil and elsewhere, legal actions against Israelis suspected of crimes in Gaza are necessary and overdue," wrote the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.
Jan 06, 2025
A former Israeli solider vacationing in Brazil fled the country with the help of the Israeli government after the Hind Rajab Foundation, which is named for a 5-year-old girl believed to have been killed by Israeli tank fire Gaza, filed a complaint against the man alleging he had participated in war crimes, prompting a police investigation.
A Brazilian judge ordered police to investigate the soldier last week, according to Brazilian media, based on the complaint brought by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), which accused "the suspect of participating in massive demolitions of civilian homes in Gaza during a systematic campaign of destruction," per a Friday statement from the foundation.
The group, which is "dedicated to the quest for justice in response to the crimes against humanity, war crimes, and human rights violations perpetrated by the Israeli state against Palestinians," also added in their statement that the evidence in the complaint includes "includes video footage, geolocation data, and photographs showing the suspect personally planting explosives and participating in the destruction of entire neighborhoods."
According to CNN, the Israeli foreign ministry said Sunday that "following an attempt last weekend by anti-Israeli elements to investigate a discharged Israeli soldier who visited Brazil, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar immediately activated the Foreign Ministry to ensure that the Israeli citizen was not in danger."
The foreign ministry also Sunday warned Israelis "that anti-Israeli elements may exploit" social media posts "regarding their military service."
The outlet Informed Consent noted that there is a similar case unfolding in Chile.
In November, after months of deliberation, the International Criminal Court formally issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
Neither the U.S. nor Israel recognize the ICC's jurisdiction, and the U.S. has rejected the ICC warrant; however, other countries have indicated they would honor it.
The International Court of Justice is separately probing allegations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese—the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories—wrote on X Sunday that "in Brazil and elsewhere, legal actions against Israelis suspected of crimes in Gaza are necessary and overdue."
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