JERUSALEM – Israeli leaders on Sunday sharply criticized an expected U.S. decision to impose sanctions on a unit of ultra-Orthodox soldiers within the Israeli military.
The decision, expected as early as Monday, could be the primary time the U.S. has ever imposed sanctions on a unit inside the Israeli military and would further strain growing ties between the 2 allies increasingly tense throughout the Israeli war in Gaza.
While U.S. officials declined to call the unit targeted for sanctions, Israeli leaders and native media identified it as Netzah Yehuda — an infantry battalion formed a few quarter-century ago to integrate ultra-Orthodox men into the military. Many religious men Get exceptions of what should actually be compulsory service.
Israeli leaders condemned the expected decision as unfair, especially at a time when Israel is at war, and vowed to oppose it.
“If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on any unit of the IDF, I will fight it with all my might,” the prime minister said Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Netzah Yehuda, or “Judea Forever,” has historically been based within the occupied West Bank and a few of its members have been linked to human rights abuses against Palestinians. It represents only a small a part of Israel's military presence within the territory.
The unit got here under intense American criticism in 2022 after an elderly Palestinian-American man was affected found dead shortly after he was arrested at a checkpoint within the West Bank.
A Palestinian autopsy found that 78-year-old Omar Assad had health problems but had suffered a heart attack attributable to “external violence.”
It said doctors found bruising on his head, redness on his wrists from being tied up and bleeding in his eyelids from being blindfolded. According to a military investigation, Israeli soldiers assumed Assad was sleeping after they cut the cables binding his hands. They didn’t offer medical attention after they saw he was unresponsive and left the scene without checking to see if he was still alive.
Assad had lived within the USA for 4 a long time. After an outcry from the U.S. government, the Israeli military said the incident was “a serious and unfortunate event resulting from moral failure and poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers.” It said one officer was reprimanded over the incident and two other officers been placed in non-commanding roles.
But the military decided against law enforcementand said military investigators could circuitously link their actions to the U.S. citizen's death.
Human rights groups have long argued that Israel rarely holds soldiers accountable for the deaths of Palestinians.
Investigators said soldiers were forced to restrain Assad due to his “aggressive resistance.” Assad's family has expressed skepticism that the behavior of an ailing 78-year-old could justify such harsh treatment.
Amid the turmoil with the US, Israel moved Netzah Yehuda from the West Bank in late 2022 and assigned it to northern Israel. The battalion was deployed to the southern border with Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attack ongoing war.
In an announcement on Sunday, the military said its Netzah Yehuda soldiers were “currently participating in the war effort in the Gaza Strip.”
“The battalion conducts its operations professionally and courageously in accordance with the IDF Code of Ethics and in full compliance with international law,” it said. It said that if the unit is sanctioned, “its consequences will be reviewed.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that it had made a call on reviewing allegations that several Israeli military units had violated the conditions for receiving US aid set out within the so-called Leahy Law and that it could be made public soon.
Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's War Cabinet, said in an announcement that he spoke with Blinken on Sunday evening and told him that the expected decision was a “mistake” because it could affect Israel's international legitimacy throughout the war and since of Israel's justice system “Strong and strong” be independent.”
Two U.S. officials aware of the situation said the U.S. announcement could come as early as Monday.
The officials said five Israeli units were under investigation and all but one were found to have taken measures to deal with the violations. The Leahy Act, named after former Senator Patrick Leahy, prohibits U.S. aid from going to foreign military units which have committed human rights abuses.
A reservist with the Netzah Yehuda unit, Sgt. Maj. Nadav Nissim Miranda, said Assad's death was “an unfortunate incident” but additionally an aberration. He told Channel 12 TV that targeting the battalion would harm efforts to encourage religious men to enlist.
But Yesh Din, an Israeli legal advocacy group, said the case was not an isolated incident. It says that one in five soldiers convicted of harming Palestinians or their property since 2010 comes from Netzah Yehuda, making it the unit with the best conviction rate in such cases.
The US review was initiated before the Hamas war and shouldn’t be related to recent Israeli actions within the Gaza Strip or the West Bank – where there was a dramatic increase in deadly violence for the reason that Gaza war began. The USA also recently imposed sanctions against the country violent settlers.
Gadi Shamni, a retired general who once served as a military commander over the West Bank, said a key problem with the unit is that it has traditionally been assigned exclusively to the West Bank. Violence between troops and Palestinians and settlers and Palestinians has increased sharply there in recent times. In contrast, he said other units commonly rotate out and in of volatile territory.
He said the incessant friction and violence had led to some “fatigue” amongst troops. Still, he said it was a stereotype to punish all the unit and that it could have been higher to focus on specific individuals or commanders.
But Ori Givati, the pinnacle of advocacy at Breaking the Silence, an Israeli group of former combat soldiers critical of the Israeli occupation, said the issues run much deeper than individual units.
He said soldiers' abuse of power over Palestinians was systematic and the shortage of consequences for wrongdoing led to incidents resembling Assad's death.
Israeli hardliners criticized the expected US decision. Israel's ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the US had crossed a “red line” and Tally Gotliv, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, accused the US of anti-Semitism.
He said the expected sanctions were “a mistake and we must act to lift them.” He noted that “the cause of the problem is not at the military level but at the political level.”
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