Eric Goldstein is the former deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division.
Israeli authorities last week helped hustle a citizen out of Brazil after learning that he was facing a possible war crimes investigation there for his actions while serving in the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza. The legal action was initiated by the Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation, which tracks the self-incriminating social media postings of Israeli soldiers while on duty in Gaza, finds those individuals when they post on social media while traveling abroad, and then files a complaint in the country they are in, under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction.
These complaints have hit Israelis right where it hurts: at the intersection between their insularity and their cosmopolitanism. It is insularity that leads soldiers to upload vengeful videos of themselves reveling as they blow up apartment blocks in Gaza, pose next to dead bodies, call for the extermination and expulsion of Palestinians, and mockingly cavort around in the female undergarments of Palestinians who they have displaced. And it is cosmopolitanism that propels them on their traditional post-military year of being footloose from Bangkok to Brazil, a kind of Birthright trip in reverse.
On January 7, the day before the reserve soldier in question returned to Israel from his aborted Brazil vacation, a very different kind of development involving Israeli soldiers was taking place in Tel Aviv: a gathering of those who refuse to serve in the occupied territories. Although the number of refuseniks has been minimal since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, the deadliest day in Israel's history—and some are objecting above all to the failure of the Netanyahu government to secure the release of hostages held by militants in Gaza—others are participants in the long history of conscientious objection to the Israeli army's mistreatment of Palestinians.
The threat of war crimes investigations in other countries has hit Israelis right where it hurts: at the intersection between their insularity and their cosmopolitanism.
- Eric Goldstein
In publicly explaining their actions, a refusenik acts as a "moral witness," Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit's term for someone who:
makes an effort to observe and report on suffering arising from evil conduct. He may take risks in doing so, but he has a moral purpose: to expose the evil done by a regime that tries to cover up its immoral deeds. A moral witness acts with a sense of hope: that there is, or will be, a moral community for which his or her testimony matters.
The concept of moral witness underlay an international conference I organized in 2004 in Jerusalem on soldier testimony and human rights. (The conference took place on February 29 and March 1, 2004, under the auspices of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management of the University of Maryland and the Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University Law School, with funding from the Ford Foundation.) One premise of this initiative was that the more we heard about the ugliness of repression from the repressors themselves, the more we could stir public opinion to address the abuse.
One of the speakers at the conference in Jerusalem more than 20 years ago poured cold water on that premise. Ilana Hammerman, an Israeli translator and activist, had at that point co-edited two volumes of vivid testimonies by Israeli soldiers distraught by what they had seen in their military service—one devoted to the First Intifada, the second to Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
In her remarks at the conference, Hammerman looked back with humility at her high hopes for the first book. "I thought that testimonies this powerful would be capable of shattering the blissful complacency of a lot people," she said. "I was wrong." One critic complained, "But we already knew all of this." This irked Hammerman. "Few people actually read the book," she responded, "not because they already 'knew,' but because they wanted the repression to continue." Chastened but still hopeful, she produced the volume featuring soldiers in Lebanon—only "to receive the same lesson."
A couple of weeks after the conference, the organization Breaking the Silence was founded by veteran Israeli soldiers. (I'd like to think there was a causal link, but it was a coincidence.) Staffed by reservists and ex-soldiers, Breaking the Silence amplifies the voice of those troubled by what they experienced while serving in the occupied territories, with the objective of "push[ing] Israeli society to face the reality it has created." It leverages the credibility that those who served in the IDF—considered patriots—enjoy among Israeli Jews to influence those who are inclined to dismiss or ignore the testimony of Palestinians and reports by news media and conventional human rights organizations. For 21 years, the organization has indeed been "breaking the silence" about the brutality of Israel's occupation and challenging the state of denial.
Breaking the Silence embodies the role of "moral witness." It is probably the leading organization of its kind in the world; its courage and the quality of its work are formidable. While it has raised awareness among some Israelis in uniform, I remain uncertain about the influence this group of veterans has had on the overall behavior of Israeli troops, and in hastening an end to the occupation, one of its stated goals. The Israeli Jewish public has found ways to avert its gaze from "moral witnesses," especially since the horrors of October 7.
If the threat of arrest nudges Israelis toward questioning the near-total impunity that their troops enjoy, then "immoral witnesses" will have aided, however unwittingly, the long and honorable efforts of the moral ones.
- Eric Goldstein
These days, it might be the turn of "immoral witnesses" to rattle complacency. I refer to the many Israeli soldiers who documented their unconscionable behavior in Gaza in video clips and selfies on Twitter, TikTok and Telegram. Thanks to organizations that have been connecting the dots, Israeli authorities are now cautioning ex-soldiers of their legal risks abroad. Authorities have also placed new restrictions on media coverage of soldiers on combat duty. However, for some legal experts, the best way for Israel to mitigate legal risks to its soldiers and officials abroad is for the Israeli government to actually hold abusers accountable to Israel's own laws.
It is one thing for Israelis that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for their prime minister and former defense minister, along with a Hamas commander. It is quite another for ordinary Israeli Jews to worry that they could be served with a summons while vacationing or working abroad. Nongovernmental organizations have initiated similar efforts to go after dual-national soldiers in the Israeli army who also have citizenship in a European country.
While no Israeli soldier outside the country has yet been arrested or charged, and the risk is lower for the majority of soldiers who do not star in those galling clips from Gaza, the seeds of uncertainty have been planted. If the threat of arrest nudges Israelis toward questioning the near-total impunity that their troops enjoy, then "immoral witnesses" will have aided, however unwittingly, the long and honorable efforts of the moral ones.
