My country has chosen to stand on the wrong side of history, no matter the scale of murder and destruction it means to support.
Now, it’s being taken to an international court for it.
I was very pleased to learn that the Hind Rajab Foundation, a nonprofit seeking to bring Israeli war criminals to justice, was taking my country, Lithuania, to the European Court of Human Rights. I was pleased for two reasons.
One, because of the actual case that Lithuanian institutions refused to investigate.
Former Israeli soldier Sean Gor has been studying dentistry at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. He has been identified as a member of the “Vampire Empire” company with the 52nd Armored Battalion of the 401st Armored Brigade, accused of a range of crimes, including the murder of Hind Rajab, her extended family, and the two paramedics sent to collect Hind from her family’s car.
Authorities in Lithuania have refused to investigate Gor’s case, citing difficulty in collecting evidence as the main reason, which, according to the Hind Rajab Foundation, is a limiting interpretation of what universal jurisdiction implies.
Two, because, at this point, it can only take an external actor to force Lithuania to stop normalising Israel’s mass murder or pretend it is not happening.
I have been documenting my country’s fall into the moral abyss together with Israel for the past three years. In October 2023, I started recording — for the first time, in video — political commentary in Lithuanian. I couldn’t have predicted there would be so much to comment on: from the constant flow of “Israel says” propaganda, to casting doubt on Palestinian deaths, to using only associative images and rarely anything depicting the scale of mass murder itself, to never condemning the kidnapping of a Lithuanian citizen on the Global Sumud Flotilla.
What is worse, Lithuania’s institutional support for Israel has only grown over the past three years, with increased collaboration among various ministries, business deals, and even new flights to Tel Aviv. I have hundreds of videos on all this in Lithuanian by now. The short clips below are some of my commentary on this topic in English. A mix of deep national shame, disgust, and rage seems to have resonated with many in my audience around the world (thank you all for your solidarity comments).
In short, Lithuania’s refusal to investigate Israeli soldier Sean Gor is very much in line with the country’s overall unshakeable support for Israel. It has been falling into a moral abyss together with Israel very steadily.
I hope it is forced to stop, even if it’s done by an international court and not by a genuine understanding of what kind of regime Lithuania has chosen to support, and how it will be remembered by history.
As always, stay strong, check on others, and keep your heart open.
❤️💔❤️
Justina
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