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A Foundation Led by a Terror Sympathizer Is Waging Lawfare Against Israel
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) — a Belgium-based advocacy organization — is hunting IDF soldiers and government officials all over the world, attempting to manipulate the international legal system to arrest and prosecute Israelis for alleged crimes.
Today, the HRF is primarily targeting Israelis, but it is also establishing a dangerous precedent, whereby organizations with a radical agenda could use the same legal playbook to persecute US and NATO troops in the future.
In July, HRF submitted its most recent complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC), after the IDF targeted Al Jazeera reporter Anas al Sharif — who Israel says was moonlighting as a Hamas operative.
The complaint accuses IDF members allegedly involved in Sharif’s death of war crimes and genocide. The complaint goes on to urge the ICC to issue arrest warrants for the IDF members.
Since its founding in 2024, HRF has filed several complaints against Israelis with the ICC, including a sweeping complaint in October 2024 that identified 1,000 IDF soldiers purportedly involved in the war in Gaza.
According to HRF, the organization submitted 8,000 pieces of “verifiable evidence … including videos, audio recordings, forensic reports, and social media documentation” that allegedly document the guilt of the named soldiers. Included in the list were 12 unwitting American dual nationals.
While framed as the pursuit of justice under international law, HRF’s campaign is grounded in hatred. The group’s founder, Dyab Abou Jahjah, has been open and on the record for more than two decades regarding his affinity for terrorists, as well as his antisemitic, anti-American, and anti-Israeli beliefs.
Abou Jahjah admitted to joining Hezbollah as a young man, where he claims to have received military training. He has used social media to amplify messages from former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Shortly after 9/11, Abou Jahjah voiced his animosity towards the United States, saying that the attacks elicited feelings of “sweet revenge.” The following year, Belgian authorities arrested Abou Jahjah for his involvement in riots.
In 2005, Abou Jahjah agreed with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that wiping Israel off the map was the “only possible moral position.” He has repeatedly glorified armed resistance, and was eventually fired in 2017 from his position with a Belgian newspaper for praising the slaying of four Israeli soldiers. In addition to its efforts at the ICC, HRF has attempted to spur the prosecution of Israelis in more than 20 countries.
HRF’s methodology for building cases against IDF soldiers is to comb through the targets’ social media accounts, collecting data to use in complaints. Meanwhile, the group monitors the soldiers’ movements, filing cases in foreign jurisdictions, as the IDF soldiers travel abroad. The organization’s efforts have also included an attempt to extradite Israelis from Nepal, and a request to Interpol to flag an Israeli citizen for apprehension.
This approach has generated some results: authorities in Lima, Peru, opened a criminal case against an IDF soldier, and Belgian authorities questioned two Israeli citizens at a music festival near Antwerp. However, none of HRF’s cases have resulted in a successful prosecution — yet.
HRF’s attempts to trigger a prosecution at the ICC should be of special concern to the United States, which — like Israel — decided not to join the ICC when it was formed, fearing that it would become a venue for lawfare. The US Congress was so concerned with the threat of ICC judicial overreach that in 2001 it passed a law authorizing the president to “use all means necessary” to liberate Americans held by the ICC.
Meanwhile, the ICC has shown it is determined to find ways to prosecute troops from countries that are not parties to the court’s founding treaty.
In 2017, the ICC announced that it would proceed with an investigation of US troops that it said committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The court argued that since Afghanistan was part of the ICC, Americans in Afghanistan were subject to its jurisdiction.
The ICC has extended that argument to Israel, claiming that because the unrecognized “State of Palestine” is an ICC member, IDF troops in Gaza are subject to the court’s jurisdiction. HRF seeks to turn that theory into reality by serving up defendants for the ICC to prosecute.
The Trump administration commendably fought back against the ICC’s overreach with Executive Orders in its first and second administrations, authorizing a series of sanctions against members of the court, with four additional ICC officials sanctioned in August.
Now, the administration should turn its attention to HRF. First, there are grounds to investigate the ties to Hezbollah of HRF and its founder Abou Jahjah, with an eye to imposing sanctions under Executive Order 13224 (as amended), which authorizes sanctions on terrorists and their material supporters, agents, and trainees. Second, HRF could be subject to sanctions if it meets the criteria laid out in Executive Order 14203, which applies to those who have “directly engaged in” or “materially assisted” the ICC pursuit of targets from countries that are not members of the court.
By standing on principle today, when the court is targeting Israelis, the US government can ensure that Americans do not become the court’s targets tomorrow.
Enia Krivine is the senior director of the Israel Program and the National Security Network at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow her on X @EKrivine.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.
