Fanatical Israeli army unit faces US sanctions
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to announce the sanctioning of one of the more extreme elements of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the upcoming days, according to Axios on April 20.
Ultra-Orthodox IDF battalion, Netzah Yehuda (formerly Nahal Haredi) was founded in 1999 with the purpose of attracting more Haredi Jewish men to the army and has spiralled into a religious extremist front that has a long and historic list of accusations against them of committing grave human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank, its only area of operation until January 2023 when they were transferred to the Golan Heights.
It would be the first time that an Israeli military unit has been subjected to US sanctions and the move would prevent the 1,000-strong battalion from receiving any kind of US military assistance and/or training.
In 1997, a US law, authored by then-Democrat US Senator and former president pro tempore of the Senate Patrick Leahy, was passed to ensure that no US Foreign Aid and Defense Department training programs are going to authorities who have been found to have committed human rights breaches.
Famously in January 2022, Netzah Yehuda members killed an elderly Palestinian-American man, Omar Assad, after they had battered, blindfolded and tortured him. The defenceless 80-year-old was found dead hours after the brutalities.
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A White House official said: “We are not and have not been considering sanctioning units in the IDF. Without confirming what may be under consideration, under the Leahy Act, certain units would be ineligible for American security assistance until the violations are remedied.”
It is understood that the sanctions have no relation to the unprecedented number of attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli army since the Hamas attack on October 7. 468 Palestinians have been killed in the illegally occupied territory in the space of six months.
Four Israeli settlers were sanctioned by the US State Department for violent acts on Palestinians in the West Bank in February and a further three were sanctioned a month later.
The sanctions blocked the individuals from accessing all US property, assets and the American financial system.
Angered at the prospect of US sanctions placed on an IDF unit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, I will fight it with all my strength.”
Axios/ The Guardian
