The arrival of Israeli soldiers and former soldiers at Brazilian holiday destinations demands a question: does accountability for crimes disappear when military uniforms are exchanged for beachwear?

Brazil cannot welcome as ordinary visitors people against whom there is credible evidence of involvement in atrocities without investigating those suspicions.

As I have repeatedly argued, the genocide in Gaza is part of the history of Zionist settler colonialism. The Nakba, which uprooted more than 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, never ended. It continues through land dispossession, forced displacement and the denial of self-determination.

The destruction of Gaza deepens this process of expulsion and the attempt to eliminate the Palestinian presence.

In September 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces had committed genocide in Gaza. It linked this violence to decades of occupation and repression, under an ideology of removing and replacing the Palestinian population. Accountability for these crimes cannot end at the battlefield’s edge.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice found Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful and reaffirmed the illegality of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It identified annexation and the obstruction of self-determination as elements of that unlawful presence.

Service in the Israeli armed forces constitutes an indication of........

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