The Palestinian group Al-Haq said on Thursday that it and others filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland against Israel’s Economy Minister Nir Barkat, who is in Davos, for “international crimes.”
The group, which Jerusalem has designated a terror group, posted that the Likud member and former Jerusalem mayor “is currently present in #Davos and the public prosecutor is obliged to examine it while he is present in the country.”
Davos is the site of the World Economic Forum’s annual conference, which brings together the world’s business and political elite. Barkat is there to spur investment in Israel and meet with foreign officials. President Isaac Herzog is also in attendance, along with an array of other world leaders.
The posts by Al-Haq do not detail specific “crimes” Barkat is alleged to have committed or name the other groups behind the complaint. But the request is the latest effort by a pro-Palestinian group to prosecute Israelis on foreign soil for alleged war crimes in Gaza or the West Bank.
“Davos cannot be a safe haven for war criminals, where individuals facing serious allegations are granted impunity,” the group said in the post thread.
A group called the Hind Rajab Foundation has advocated for the arrest abroad of Israelis who served in Gaza, often identifying them from social media posts and then petitioning authorities in foreign countries to detain them for alleged war crimes. Earlier this week, an Israeli comedian who had posted an inflammatory video from Gaza said he was detained for six hours in Canada due to a Hind Rajab complaint.
It’s unclear if Hind Rajab was involved in the complaint against Barkat. It did not refer to him on its own X account.
At left, Shawan Jabarin, whom Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency alleges is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, and director of Al-Haq, a Palestinian NGO that Israel claims is a terror organization, greets Jeremy Corbyn, (right) outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London on May 13, 2025. (Photo by Adrian Dennis / AFP)
Al-Haq claimed on X post that Barkat, as economy minister, “is responsible for unlawful Israeli colonization of Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel’s actions in Gaza,” alleging that he encouraged “genocide.” It did not say which statements of Barkat’s it was referring to.
The group alleged that Barkat, as mayor of Jerusalem from 2008 to 2018, was “individually responsible for illegal Israeli settlement-related international crimes, including apartheid.” It said, “He should be investigated for his role in planning, permits, enforcement and demolitions in occupied Jerusalem.”
Much of the world considers East Jerusalem to be illegally occupied by Israel. Israel, which captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed it more than 40 years ago, sees it as part of the country’s undivided capital. The Al-Haq post does not appear to specify East Jerusalem.
Barkat posted a screenshot of an article about the threat, writing, “No terror group will deter me. I will continue to develop the Israeli economy and represent the state fearlessly everywhere in the world.”
Al-Haq, which Israel designated a terror group in 2021 along with several other Palestinian NGOs, accusing them of being fronts for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror organization, has previously sought international legal action against Israel.
It, along with two other groups, asked the International Criminal Court to arrest Israeli leaders over allegations of genocide in Gaza in November 2023, shortly after the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed some 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza. The US sanctioned Al-Haq and the other two groups in 2025.
Al-Haq also unsuccessfully sought to block the British export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel.
