Complaint Filed Against French-Israeli Soldier by Human Rights Groups Over Alleged Torture

“Look, they tortured him to make him talk," a French-Israeli soldier is heard saying of a Palestinian detainee in a video posted online in March.

Photo: Yoel Ohnona on Facebook

A coalition of prominent human rights organizations has called on the French authorities for a second time to investigate a French-Israeli soldier, who they name only as Yoel O., for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and torture while serving in the Israeli army in its war on Gaza. The civil complaint was filed today by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Al-Haq, Al Mezan, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the Ligue des droits de l'Homme (LDH) with the War Crimes Unit of the Paris Tribunal.

The complaint is based on a video shared in March by Yoel O.’s family member, Samuel, a fellow Israeli soldier, showing Palestinian detainees blindfolded, bound, and dressed in white overalls. The soldier in question, identified by Drop Site News as Yoel Ohnona, can be heard verbally abusing the detainees in French, and boasting about torturing him. He can be heard saying: “Look, he pissed himself. Look, I’ll show you his back, you’re going to laugh. Look, they tortured him to make him talk. Did you see his back? Son of a whore.”

The graphic video was originally uncovered and posted publicly by Younis Tirawi, a Palestinian journalist and Drop Site News contributor: