[News] US declares controversial Israeli battalion eligible for assistance

[Anti-Imperialist News]

aljazeera.com
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/9/us-declares-controversial-israeli-battalion-eligible-for-assistance>
US declares controversial Israeli battalion eligible for assistance
Al Jazeera
August 9, 2024
------------------------------

*State Department says concerns over alleged rights violations have been
‘effectively remediated’.*

The United States has announced that Netzah Yehuda
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/25/what-is-netzah-yehuda-the-israeli-battalion-facing-possible-us-sanctions>,
a controversial Israeli battalion notorious among Palestinians for
repressive activities in the occupied West Bank, is eligible for US
military assistance.

The administration of President Joe Biden had considered blocking the
battalion from receiving US assistance
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/21/us-set-to-impose-sanctions-on-israeli-military-unit-over-abuses-report>
amid reports of involvement in human rights violations, but Department of
State spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Friday that such abuses had been
“effectively remediated”.

The Reuters news agency reported that Miller said in an email that the
decision to confirm the battalion’s eligibility comes amid new information
from Israel.

In 2022, soldiers from the unit handcuffed, blindfolded and gagged elderly
US citizen Omar Assad
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/14/us-to-address-killing-of-american-citizen-directly-with-israel>
and left him to die in a cold car park.

Under federal regulations known as the Leahy Law
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/2/how-us-violates-its-own-leahy-law-to-ensure-military-support-for-israel>,
the US is required to cut off assistance to military units involved in
gross violations of human rights, but critics say that the US has long
failed to apply the rule to Israel.

The law focuses on four categories of abuses in its definition of gross
violations of human rights: extrajudicial killings, torture, rape as a
weapon of war and enforced disappearances.

In a column <https://www.justsecurity.org/98521/netzah-yehuda-leahy-law/>
for the legal forum Just Security, Charles Blaha, who directed the office
of the State Department tasked with enforcing the Leahy Law from 2016 to
2023, said that today’s decision “appears directly contrary to the Leahy
Law”.

“The decision strongly suggests that the US position is likely a result, in
significant part, of pressure by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Months ago, when
news broke that the State Department was considering Netzah Yehuda for
ineligibility, Netanyahu expressed outrage and vowed to oppose application
of the law,” the column reads.

“Against that backdrop, the Secretary’s decision sends a terrible message
to Israel and others: that pressure on US officials works, and that Israel
is essentially de facto exempt from US law.”

US politics, Canada’s multiculturalism, South America’s geopolitical
rise—we bring you the stories that matter.

Video Duration 2 minutes 38 seconds

The fatal mistreatment of Assad, who was Palestinian American, sparked
calls and formal requests to apply the Leahy Law to the Netzah Yehuda
battalion.

The US called for accountability and a criminal investigation into the
incident. However, Israel’s Military Advocate General announced in June
2023 that the soldiers would face disciplinary action but no criminal
charges
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/14/israeli-forces-face-no-charges-over-death-of-palestinian-american>
.

Four members of the battalion were also arrested in October 2021 for
allegedly beating and sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee, and one
soldier was indicted over electrocuting a Palestinian detainee in 2015.

Israeli authorities stood firmly by the side of the battalion amid reports
that the US was considering cutting them off from military support in April.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who is the subject of a war crimes
investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) himself, visited
troops from the Netzah Yehuda battalion days after the news broke out.

“No one in the world can teach us about values and morals,” Gallant said at
that time. “We are at the beginning of the war against seven armies and
terrorist organisations. The security apparatus is behind you.”

Video Duration 7 minutes 45 seconds

Israeli soldiers who take part in attacks on Palestinians in the occupied
West Bank rarely face prosecution, despite evidence of widespread rights
violations
<https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/6/24/palestinian-shot-and-tied-to-israeli-army-vehicle-describes-incident>.
When Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, watchdog groups say soldiers
often stand by or directly join the attacks themselves.

Rights groups, including the Israeli watchdog B’Tselem, say that trend has
accelerated in recent years, with units in the occupied West Bank
increasingly populated by far-right settlers
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/3/unsafe-in-own-home-israeli-settlers-spread-terror-in-south-hebron-hills>
.

Palestinians have long maintained that such cases are not isolated
incidents committed by rogue soldiers, but part of a larger effort towards
repression and denial of basic rights, carried out with the backing of the the
Israeli government
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/8/israels-netanyahu-calls-occupied-west-bank-part-of-our-homeland>
.

On Friday, US activist Amado Sison said he was shot by Israeli soldiers who
opened fire on a Palestinian demonstration in the village of Beita in the
occupied West Bank.

“We ran to the olive groves, through the olive groves, and they shot me in
the back of the legs,” he told the AFP news agency from a hospital bed in
Nablus.
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