Netanyahu vows to fight any US sanctions imposed on IDF unit

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would fight planned U.S. sanctions on an IDF unit accused of grave human rights violations in the West Bank with ‘all [his] strength.’ Reports on Saturday claimed that the Biden administration was planning on imposing sanctions on Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has largely operated in the occupied West Bank and was accused in 2022 of allowing an elderly Palestinian-American man to die after he suffered ‘extreme violence’ at the soldiers’ hands.

The reports came a day after the U.S. announced a series of sanctions linked to Israeli settlers in the West Bank, in the latest sign of growing frustration with Netanyahu and his cabinet, which relies on settler parties to stay in power. ‘If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF – I will fight it with all my strength,’ Netanyahu said in a statement. The sanctions on Netzah Yehuda are the first to be imposed on the IDF by the U.S. It was revealed that the U.S. has been planning the sanctions on the unit for months.

Investigative news outlet ProPublica reported that a special State Department panel known as the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum had recommended months ago to U.S. Secretary of State Blinken that multiple Israeli military and police units be disqualified from receiving U.S. aid, after allegations of human rights violations. U.S. officials said about five Israeli units were investigated and all but one had been found to have taken action to remedy the violations of The Leahy Law, named for former Senator Patrick Leahy, which bars U.S. aid from going to foreign military units that have committed human rights abuses.

Blinken on Friday said he had made ‘determinations’ regarding accusations that Israel violated a set of U.S. laws that prohibit providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights. The incidents that were the subject of allegations took place in the West Bank and mostly occurred before Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began on October 7, the outlet said.

Before the Gaza war, violence had already been on the rise in the West Bank, land that the Palestinians seek for a state, and it has risen since with frequent Israeli raids, Palestinian street attacks and settler rampages in Palestinian villages. The Israeli military said the Netzah Yehuda battalion is an active combat unit that operates according to the principles of international law. ‘Following publications about sanctions against the battalion, the IDF is not aware of the issue,’ the military said. ‘If a decision is made on the matter it will be reviewed. The IDF works and will continue to work to investigate any unusual event in a practical manner and according to law.’

In 2022, Netzah Yehuda’s battalion commander was reprimanded and two officers were dismissed over the death of an elderly Palestinian-American whom the unit’s soldiers had detained in the West Bank, an incident that stirred concern in Washington. There have been several other incidents in recent years, some captured on video, in which Netzah Yehuda soldiers were accused of or charged with abusing Palestinian detainees.

The unit came under heavy American criticism in 2022 after an elderly Palestinian-American man was found dead shortly after he was detained at a West Bank checkpoint. A Palestinian autopsy said Omar Assad, 78, had underlying health conditions, but had suffered a heart attack caused by ‘external violence.’ It said doctors found bruises on his head, redness on his wrists from being bound and bleeding in his eyelids from being tightly blindfolded. A military investigation said that Israeli soldiers assumed that Assad was asleep when they cut off the cables binding his hands.

They didn’t offer medical help when they saw that he was unresponsive and left the scene without checking to see if he was alive. A reservist in the Netzah Yehuda unit, Sgt. Maj. Nadav Nissim Miranda, said the Assad death was ‘an unfortunate incident’ but also an aberration. He told Channel 12 TV that targeting the battalion would hurt efforts to encourage religious men to enlist. Assad had lived in the U.S. for four decades. After an outcry from the U.S. government, the Israeli military said the incident ‘was a grave and unfortunate event, resulting from moral failure and poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers.’

It added one officer was reprimanded and two other officers reassigned to non-commanding roles, over the incident. But the army decided against criminal prosecution, saying military investigators could not directly link their actions to the death of the U.S. citizen. Human rights groups long have argued that Israel rarely holds soldiers accountable for the deaths of Palestinians. Investigators said soldiers were forced to restrain Assad because of his ‘aggressive resistance.’ Assad’s family has expressed skepticism that the behavior of an ailing 78-year-old could justify such harsh treatment.

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