US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to announce sanctions within days against the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) ‘Netzah Yehuda’ battalion for human rights abuses in the West Bank, three US sources told news outlet Axios.
Elderly man beaten to death
The reason for the American intention is the death of 78-year-old Palestinian American Omar Abdalmajeed Asad after he was arrested and assaulted by members of the unit in January. The elderly man, who suffered from heart problems and diabetes, was arrested, handcuffed and beaten. His body was later found abandoned at a construction site. Although Israel fired two officers over the incident and reprimanded the battalion commander, it never opened a criminal investigation. According to prosecutors, there was no connection between the mistakes of the unit’s soldiers and Assad’s death.
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However, the 78-year-old is not the first civilian death attributed to this unit, according to an Israeli human rights organization the battalion is responsible for at least three other civilian deaths. On top of a long and solid track record of abuse, intimidation and torture of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
Ultra-religious and extreme right
The Netzah Yehuda Battalion is a unit of the Israeli army consisting of ultra-Orthodox soldiers. It was founded in 1999 to also allow religious recruits to serve military service (Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community is exempt from the strict military service). This gives soldiers extra time for religious study and prayer and they do not come into contact with women, who are not admitted to the battalion. The battalion was mainly deployed in Ramallah and Jenin in the West Bank and has, since its creation, attracted right-wing radical settlers from the West Bank settlements.
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According to Omri Brinner, an Israeli analyst and specialist in Middle East geopolitics at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona, that influx of settlers has transformed Netzah Yehuda “into something different” than what it was intended for. Brinner calls some of them “hardcore settlers who were given the opportunity to serve in the West Bank, where they lived and were given the legitimacy to exercise their power over the Palestinians.”
Controversial
The battalion is highly controversial, even within the Israeli Defense Forces. There are countless stories of severe abuse of Palestinians, but also of Israeli peace activists and even police units when they try to intervene in settler violence. According to Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, 17 of the 83 soldiers convicted of crimes against Palestinians between 2010 and 2022 served with Netzah Yehuda.
“With only 500 soldiers in the battalion, Netzah Yehuda has the highest conviction rate of any unit in the Israeli army since 2010,” The Wall Street Journal wrote in 2022. The Israeli daily Haaretz regularly exposed abuses in the unit and concluded that radical settlers see the unit as ‘their own’ battalion against the Palestinians.
The battalion was initially deployed only to the West Bank as it was deemed too risky to deploy elsewhere, and was redeployed to the Golan Heights in early 2023, but according to some Israeli media it is now also fighting in Gaza.
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Law Leahy
The possible American sanctions are a consequence of the 1997 Leahy law, which prohibits American aid from the Ministry of Defense when it goes to foreign security, military and police services that are likely to commit human rights violations. The law was previously used to blacklist Indonesian military units accused of kidnapping and killing political activists, as well as members of the Pakistani military involved in assassination campaigns in Afghanistan.
Peak of absurdity
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted strongly to the American plan. “The IDF must not be punished!” Netanyahu wrote on Former Israeli Defense Minister and member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet Benny Gantz also had nothing good to say about Washington’s intention. “We have great respect for our American friends, but imposing sanctions on the unit sets a dangerous precedent and sends the wrong message to our shared enemies in times of war.”
Terrible stain
Ahron Bregman, a political scientist from Kings College London, told France24 that sanctions against an IDF unit were “a terrible stain on the Israeli army,” saying that the “Israelis will fight hard to prevent this.” But he also said that while Netzah Yehuda is an integral part of the IDF, this is “a unit that any army should be ashamed of.” With US sanctions, the Netzah Yehuda would no longer be allowed to use US equipment, including weapons and ammunition. “This means that the IDF will either have to disband the unit or place it on standby until sanctions are lifted,” Bregman said. “My fellow Israelis will hate me to say it, but Netzah Yehuda is like an Israeli-style Wagner Group.”
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