Annie Hylton writes:

Last spring, a video spread across social media. Filmed at night, it shows several soldiers in olive-green army fatigues transporting a group of prisoners. The captured men wear white jumpsuits and blindfolds, and they have their hands tied behind their backs. The person holding the camera begins to narrate, in French, “Did you see those motherfuckers?” Referring to a prisoner whose jumpsuit has fallen to his waist, he says, “Look, he’s pissed himself. . . . I will show you his back. You’ll laugh. They tortured him to make him talk.” In a separate clip, he points the camera at the men, including one with marks on his back, and says, “You were happy on October 7th, you sons of bitches?”

A group of European and Palestinian human-rights organizations allege that the video was filmed by a French-Israeli soldier stationed with the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza. Politicians in France demanded an inquiry, arguing that if this soldier was of French nationality and a potential perpetrator of torture, or had aided and abetted it, he should be tried in French courts for possible war crimes. “I am immediately contacting the Paris public prosecutor,” Thomas Portes, a deputy in the National Assembly, wrote on X. The news cycle quickly moved on, and French authorities never picked up the case. But behind the scenes a group of lawyers and activists across Europe had already been collaborating to document—and potentially bring prosecutions for—similar incidents.

Thousands of Europeans have joined the I.D.F., many of them since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. Precise figures are difficult to verify, but it’s estimated that the Israeli Army has more than four thousand soldiers of French nationality, the second-largest contingent of foreign recruits. (The U.S. is first.) French antiterrorism authorities had opened an investigation into the Hamas-led October 7th attacks, in which French citizens were injured and killed, but despite mounting allegations of war crimes being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza there were no inquiries into the possible involvement of French citizens.

Olivia Zemor, who leads the advocacy group EuroPalestine, pointed out that international arrest warrants have been issued for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, and Yoav Gallant, its former defense minister. “We have thousands of dual nationals in the Israeli Army who may have committed crimes,” and the French government has done nothing, she said. “We consider this extremely serious.” [Continue reading…]