Belgium questions 2 Israelis at music festival over Gaza crime allegations
BRUSSELS — Belgian police questioned two members of the Israeli army who were attending a music festival in Belgium over allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza, the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Brussels said in a statement Monday.
In a statement to The Associated Press, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said an Israeli citizen and an Israeli soldier who were on vacation in Belgium 'were taken in yesterday for interrogation and were released shortly afterward.' It said Israeli authorities 'dealt with this issue and are in touch with the two.'
It was not immediately clear why the Israeli Foreign Ministry referred to one civilian and one soldier, while Belgian prosecutors spoke of two Israeli army members. The whereabouts of the two people who were questioned was not immediately clear.
The case was hailed as a 'turning point in the global pursuit of accountability' by a Belgium-based group called the Hind Rajab Foundation, which has campaigned for the arrest of Israeli troops it accuses of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The group was named for a young girl who Palestinians say was killed early in the war by Israeli fire as she and her family fled Gaza City.
It isn't the first time an Israeli has been targeted overseas for legal action. In January, Israel helped a former soldier leave Brazil after legal action was initiated against him by the group, which uses geolocation and social media posts to identify soldiers they accuse of war crimes.
Since forming last year, the Hind Rajab Foundation has made dozens of complaints in more than 10 countries seeking the arrest of both low-level and high-ranking Israeli soldiers. It was not immediately clear if any soldiers have been arrested as a result of the group's actions. The group did not immediately respond to an email seeking details.
'We will continue to support the ongoing proceedings and call on Belgian authorities to pursue the investigation fully and independently,' the group said in its statement. 'Justice must not stop here — and we are committed to seeing it through.'
Israel says its forces follow international law and try to avoid harming civilians, and that it investigates allegations of wrongdoing.
In a written statement, the prosecutor's office said that the two army members — who were in Belgium for the Tomorrowland festival — were questioned after the office received legal complaints on Friday and Saturday from the Hind Rajab Foundation and another group. The prosecution office requested the questioning after an initial assessment of the complaints 'determined that it potentially had jurisdiction.'
The Hind Rajab foundation said it filed its complaints along with the rights group Global Legal Action Network.
The decision to question the two Israelis was based on an article in Belgium's Code of Criminal Procedure that went into force last year and grants Belgian courts jurisdiction over acts overseas that are potentially governed by an international treaty, in this case the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1984 United Nations convention against torture, the prosecution statement said.
'In light of this potential jurisdiction, the Federal Prosecutor's Office requested the police to locate and interrogate the two individuals named in the complaint. Following these interrogations, they were released,' the statement said, without elaborating.
It said it was not providing any further information at this stage of its investigation.
The European Jewish Association criticized Belgian authorities for acting on what it called a politically motivated complaint.
'These soldiers were carrying out their lawful duties in defence of their country, duties comparable to those of any soldier serving in a democratic nation,' the association said in a statement.
The news in Belgium came as the UN food agency accused Israel of using tanks, snipers and other weapons to fire on a crowd of Palestinians seeking food aid, in what the territory's Health Ministry said was one of the deadliest days for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war.
The death toll in war-ravaged Gaza has climbed to more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
____
Melanie Lidman and Isaac Scharf in Jerusalem and Molly Quell in The Hague contributed to this report.
The Associated Press
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