The Netherlands Bar took disciplinary measures on Monday against Dutch-Pakistani attorney Haroon Raza, who had filed “war crime” complaints with the International Criminal Court in The Hague and local authorities against Israeli President Isaac Herzog, JNS reporter Akiva Van Koningsveld and dozens of soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces.
Following a hearing on June 24, the related Board of Discipline ruled to reprimand the pro-Palestinian lawyer over a Dec. 30 social-media post on X in which he announced that he had submitted a criminal complaint against “settler” Van Koningsveld and “four other IDF murderers.”
Raza “harmed the plaintiff’s interests disproportionately by sharing the complaint against him on X.com,” the three-judge panel stated in the ruling published on Monday. “The defendant should have taken into account that this could have negative consequences for the plaintiff.”
The ruling also ordered Raza to pay 1,250 euros ($1,375) in court costs, as well as to reimburse Van Koningsveld 50 euros ($55) in filing fees.
In his advice to the disciplinary court, the head of the bar association had concluded that Raza acted improperly by publicly claiming “that he believes that Mr. Van Koningsveld is guilty of serious criminal offenses.”
The president also questioned the “quality and motive” of Raza’s filing, which he said “appeared to be aimed solely at generating publicity.”
The attorney, who has teamed up with Hezbollah activist Dyab Abou Jahjah to badger Israeli civilians and soldiers with dual nationality, had accused the Dutch-Israeli journalist of “stealing land from Palestinians in occupied territory, walking around occupied territory threateningly with automatic firearms and carrying an unauthorized weapon.”
Without sharing evidence, Raza claimed his filing, “substantiated by a comprehensive report from Amnesty International, implicates Mr. Van Koningsveld in a range of criminal activities in the West Bank.”
In March, Raza urged the ICC and Dutch police to arrest Herzog when the Israeli head of state traveled to Amsterdam for the official opening of the country’s National Holocaust Museum.
Raza told Qatar’s Al Jazeera Arabic network at the time that “due to the political climate, we do not expect the Dutch authorities to take action.”
“Everything that we have received since Oct. 7 of last year is just an e-mail confirming the receipt of these requests,” added the Dutch lawyer.
Also in March, the mother of a Dutch-Israeli IDF reservist was harassed at her Amsterdam apartment and workplace by pro-Palestinian activists after Raza and Abou Jahjah called on their combined 50,000 followers on X to help track down IDF personnel with European passports.
