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President of the Hind Rajab Foundation, Dyab Abou Jahjah, has filed a criminal complaint in Belgium against Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs and the Fight Against Antisemitism, for making terrorist threats against him.1
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) is dedicated to “breaking the cycle of Israeli impunity and honoring the memory of Hind Rajab and all those who have perished in the Gaza genocide.”2
In a social media post on 6th January 2025, Minister Chikli issued the following threat to Dyab Abou Jahjah: “Hello to our human rights activist. Watch your pager.” This threat refers to the deadly episode in September 2024 when Israeli intelligence detonated around 5,000 pagers used predominantly by Hezbollah personnel in Lebanon, killing 12 and injuring at least 2,800 people.
Such a threat is intended to intimidate Dyab Abou Jahjah and force him to cease his activities with HRF which are aimed at the effective prosecution of international crimes committed by Israeli soldiers during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The complaint asserts that such threats constitute acts of terrorism under Belgian law.
Following lodgement of the complaint on 28th January, Chikli cancelled his visit to Brussels, fearing arrest after Belgian authorities confirmed he had no diplomatic immunity.
This case follows an incident in early January when an Israeli soldier, Yuval Vagdani, accused of committing war crimes in Gaza by HRF, fled Brazil where authorities were pressing for an investigation into his wartime activities.
HRF’s complaint comprised over 500 pages of evidence, including videos, geolocation data, and open-source intelligence, linking the soldier to the blowing up of Palestinian homes in Gaza.
Despite a Brazillian court order, Yuval Vagdani, who was in Brazil as a tourist, managed to flee first to Argentina and then to the United States with the assistance of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before returning to Israel.
HRF responded by stating that Israel’s action in smuggling suspected Israeli war criminal Yuval Vagdani out of Brazil, was “not only a scandal but an affront to Brazil’s sovereignty and rule of law.”
In a post on X, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, said legal actions against Israelis suspected of crimes in Gaza “are necessary and overdue.”
“Apartheid Israel will go to great lengths to shield its soldiers since a conviction abroad for crimes against Palestinians is a precedent it cannot afford,” she said, emphasising that “justice is unstoppable.”3
So far, HRF has filed more than 1,000 cases with the International Criminal Court. HRF also maintains a catalogue of what it describes as the “perpetrators, accomplices and inciters” it is seeking investigations against for war crimes.
Notes
1. Hind Rajab Foundation, ‘HRF’s Dyab Abou Jahjah Files Complaint Against Israeli Minister for Acts of Terrorism: Amichai Chikli Cancels Visit to Belgium For Fear Of Arrest’, Jan 28, 2025.
2. The Hind Rajab Foundation 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” and to “breaking the cycle of Israeli impunity and honoring the memory of Hind Rajab and all those who have perished in the Gaza genocide.”
Hind Rajab was a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in a car in Gaza by Israeli forces as she pleaded on the phone for three hours for help, surrounded by six members of her dead family and in sight of the two Palestinian paramedics who were also killed as they attempted to reach her.
3. Francesca Albanese, Social media post, Jan 5, 2025.
More information
Simon Speakman Cordall, ‘Sense of impunity ‘absolute’: The NGO holding Israeli soldiers to account’, Al Jazeera, Jan 10, 2025.
Al Jazeera, ‘How Israeli soldiers are livestreaming war crimes’, The Take, Jan 10, 2025.
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
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