The United States has announced that Netzah Yehuda, a controversial Israeli battalion infamous among Palestinians for its repressive activities in the occupied West Bank, is eligible for US military aid.
President Joe Biden’s administration had considered barring the battalion from receiving U.S. aid because of reports of human rights abuses, but State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Friday that those abuses had been “effectively addressed.”
Reuters news agency reported that Miller said in an email that the decision to confirm the battalion’s eligibility comes following new information from Israel.
In 2022, soldiers from the unit handcuffed, blindfolded and gagged elderly American citizen Omar Assad and left him to die in a cold parking lot.
Under a federal regulation known as the Leahy Act, the United States is required to cut off aid to military units involved in serious human rights abuses, but critics say the United States has long failed to apply that rule to Israel.
The law emphasizes four categories of abuse in its definition of gross human rights violations: extrajudicial killings, torture, rape used as a weapon of war, and enforced disappearances.
In a column for the legal forum Just Security, Charles Blaha, who led the State Department office charged with enforcing the Leahy Act from 2016 to 2023, said today’s decision “appears to directly contradict the Leahy Act.”
“This decision strongly suggests that the American position is likely the result, in large part, of pressure from Prime Minister Netanyahu. A few months ago, when news broke that the State Department was considering disqualifying Netzah Yehuda, Netanyahu expressed outrage and vowed to oppose the implementation of the law,” the article reads.
“In this context, the Secretary of State’s decision sends a terrible message to Israel and others: pressure on American officials is working and Israel is de facto exempt from American law.”
The fatal mistreatment of Assad, who was an American of Palestinian descent, prompted calls and official demands to apply the Leahy Law to the Netzah Yehuda Battalion.
The United States has called for those responsible for the incident to be brought to justice and for a criminal investigation to be opened. However, Israel’s military attorney general announced in June 2023 that the soldiers would face disciplinary action, but not criminal prosecution.
Four members of the battalion were also arrested in October 2021 for allegedly beating and sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee, and a soldier was charged with electrocuting a Palestinian detainee in 2015.
Israeli authorities have steadfastly supported the battalion amid reports that the United States was considering cutting off military support in April.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is himself under investigation for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), visited troops of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion days after the news broke.
“No one in the world can teach us values and morals,” Gallant said at the time. “We are at the beginning of a war against seven armies and terrorist organizations. The security apparatus is behind you.”
Israeli soldiers who participate in attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are rarely prosecuted, despite evidence of widespread human rights abuses. When Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, monitoring groups say soldiers often stand by or directly participate in the attacks.
Human rights groups, including Israeli watchdog B’Tselem, say the trend has accelerated in recent years, with units in the occupied West Bank increasingly populated by far-right settlers.
Palestinians have long said that such cases are not isolated incidents committed by rogue soldiers, but are part of a broader effort of repression and denial of basic rights, carried out with the support of the Israeli government.
On Friday, American activist Amado Sison said he was shot dead by Israeli soldiers who opened fire on a Palestinian protest in the occupied West Bank village of Beita.
“We ran towards the olive groves, through the olive groves, and they shot me in the back of the legs,” he told AFP news agency from a hospital bed in Nablus.