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Israel’s New Battlefield: Preventing the Arrest of IDF Soldiers Around the World
Technologists with the Israeli military’s Matzpen operational data and applications unit work at their stations, at an IDF base in Ramat Gan, Israel, June 11, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Nir Elias
“The International Criminal Court has set a legal precedent that can be applied to any IDF soldier, former soldier or reservist (which includes most citizens of Israel) as well as to U.S. soldiers and civilian leadership.”
I wrote those words almost three months ago in an article about the arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Only weeks later later, this dire prediction is already coming true, with young Israelis urgently fleeing from their vacations to avoid arrest, prosecution, and possible imprisonment — merely for having served in the IDF. Here are the legal mechanisms at play, how to understand what’s happening, and what you can do about it.
The Hind Rajab Foundation, an organization started and led by Dyab Abou Jahjah, a (supposedly former) member of the internationally designated Hezbollah terror organization, claims to have filed arrest requests for 1,000 dual-nationality IDF soldiers across eight countries. The foundation conducts its activities by taking advantage of a legal mechanism called “universal jurisdiction.”
Typically, a country can enforce only its own laws, and only with respect to activities that occur within its own borders. However, some countries have “given themselves” authority to prosecute certain offenses regardless of where they were allegedly committed.
For example, Brazil, South Africa, Ecuador, the Netherlands, France, Argentina, Chile, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Belgium, Serbia, Ireland, and Cyprus, are all considering requests by the Hind Rajab Foundation to arrest visiting or dual-national Israelis, and to prosecute them locally for war crimes allegedly committed in Gaza.
While Israel says that foreign courts have not yet issued actual arrest warrants, numerous Israelis have already had to flee from their vacations after receiving urgent warnings from Israeli intelligence — most recently from Brazil, where an investigation is ongoing against IDF soldier and Nova massacre survivor Yuval Vagdani, as well as an (unnamed) IDF reservist who recently fled from Cyprus.
Strictly speaking, universal jurisdiction violates international law. Under the modern international system, a country must sign a treaty or otherwise agree to an international code of conduct before being subject to its rules. The various treaties that govern international law also establish international courts and tribunals to enforce their rules, which means a country must agree (via the relevant treaty) to be subject to that court’s jurisdiction.
For example, the Rome Statute (to which Israel and the United States are not a party) established the International Criminal Court, while the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (to which Israel is a party) established the International Court of Justice. (For a discussion of how the ICC “gave itself” jurisdiction over Israel in violation of its own rules, see our previous article.)
By contrast, Israel never agreed to be bound by the laws of (for example) Brazil, nor by Brazilian courts or its judges.
On the one hand, the international system respects local authority, which means that if an Israeli tourist commits a crime in Brazil, then Brazilian laws and courts will legitimately apply. However, to arrest an Israeli in Brazil on the basis of his or her IDF service, surpasses the bounds of Brazilian authority. Nonetheless, there is a difference between law and reality: if Brazil were to arrest an Israeli tourist, law would become essentially irrelevant, as Israel would be limited to either bringing diplomatic pressure or going to war.
South Africa has gone one step further: criminalizing IDF service by any South African citizen. This means that even without a trial over war crimes, merely serving in the IDF, in any capacity, could result in arrest and prosecution by South African authorities.
While the ICC’s arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant do not explicitly authorize the arrest of IDF soldiers, the case has had a psychological impact on countries worldwide — creating a sort of assumption that Israel “must be” actually engaged in war crimes, and thus giving national leaders encouragement to exercise universal jurisdiction against Israelis.
Legal procedure aside, Israel is quite simply not engaged in war crimes.
Israel’s operations in Gaza have produced among the lowest civilian to combatant casualty ratios in human history (even according to Hamas’ exaggerated and unreliable figures), approximately nine times less than the UN published global average: thanks in great part to Israel’s incredibly strict rules of engagement.
A recent New York Times article criticizes Israel for “loosening” its rules of engagement in Gaza, specifically claiming that Israel expanded the number of civilians who may be endangered in any given strike. What the NYT hid from its readers, however, is that neither international law, nor most countries, set any such limits at all.
The Geneva Conventions prohibit intentionally targeting civilians, and require that any harm to civilians be proportional to the military objective sought. However, the Geneva Conventions (and most countries) do not set any specific limit on how many civilians may be at risk in any given operation.
In other words, Israel has gone from vastly exceeding the requirements of international law (as well as the limits followed by most other countries) to … still vastly exceeding both. The result has been Israel’s record-breakingly low civilian to combatant casualty ratio.
In short, what we are seeing in both domestic and international courts is not law, but lawfare: the manipulation of legal institutions to conduct warfare, off the battlefield.
IDF soldiers should be careful about what they post on social media, including both activities in uniform as well as travel plans, because anti-Israel and anti-Jewish organizations are using this data to carry out their lawfare-based attacks. Soldiers should also be careful about where they travel on vacation and should stay in regular contact with the relevant Israeli consulate or embassy.
As for the rest of us, it is critical that we contact our elected representatives and speak in our communities. Because lawfare isn’t truly legal in nature, it will not be resolved by a legal process. Only the power of international diplomacy, and Israel’s friends and allies around the world, will win this next of Israel’s many, many recent battles in the multi-front war for our very survival — as a country and as a people.
Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, an organization dedicated to deepening public conversation through robust research studies and public speaking.
The post Israel’s New Battlefield: Preventing the Arrest of IDF Soldiers Around the World first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.