US military aid may be withheld over alleged human rights abuses by haredi units – CNN

Former Commanders of Netzah Yehuda battalion have been allowed to climb IDF ranks despite the US State Department finding in April that five units within the battalion violated human rights in incidents pre-dating Hamas’s October 7 attack, CNN reported on Saturday. The department is now considering withholding military aid as some fail to remedy their behavior. 

While the CNN investigation explicitly looked at Netza Yehuda, current and former US officials said that the department was examining other IDF units as well. An additional three units were found to have committed human rights violations prior to October 7, the officials claimed.

Four of the five Netzah Yehuda units had, according to the department’s findings, had “effectively remediated” themselves. 

The United States reportedly considered withholding military aid from the remaining unit, which did not correct itself following the discovery of violations, but no decision has yet been made.

Awaiting the decision, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, I will fight with all my strength.”

A department spokesperson told CNN that it had “concluded that several Israeli security force units were credibly implicated in gross violations of human rights” and that for four of those, the Israeli government had “taken effective steps to bring those responsible to justice.”

“We continue to assess reports of GVHRs by Israeli security forces, in accordance with the law, and all US security assistance to Israel is provided consistent with domestic and international law,” the spokesperson added.

 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson in a letter seen by CNN. In it, Blinken said the US was working with Israel “on identifying a path to effective remediation” for the Netzah Yehuda battalion. Blinken did not explicitly name the remaining unit.

About Netzah Yehuda and the controversy surrounding it 

The battalion was created in 1999 to facilitate ultra-Orthodox Jews’ religious requirements while they fulfilled their service in the military. 

The unit has been accused of abuses in the West Bank over the last 10 years. In one case, leading to the death of an elderly Palestinian-American man, CNN reported. Omar Assad, 78, was reportedly held gagged and bound. After freeing Assad, he was reportedly abandoned while unresponsive and died of a heart attack.

After investigating the death of Assad, the IDF concluded the incident was the result of “a moral failure and poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers.” It promised to see  Lt. Col. Mati Shevach reprimanded and the platoon commander and company commander removed from their positions. 

Shevach, despite being reprimanded for the incident, was later promoted to deputy commander of the Kfir Brigade, which oversees Netzah Yehuda. After two years in this role, Shevach transferred to a role allowing him to train forces at the military’s Urban Warfare Training Center.

In a similar case, Lt. Col. Nitai Okashi, who oversaw the Netzah Yehuda battalion from 2018 until 2020, received a number of promotions, which led him to commanding roles. These promotions were given despite 14 soldiers from his unit being arrested for assaulting a Bedouin man in the West Bank in 2019. In an earlier incident, Okashi spoke in support of some of his soldiers in court in January of that year after the soldiers were filmed beating and verbally abusing a father and son in the West Bank, CNN reported.

Asked to comment on the leadership mentioned in the above incidents, the IDF told, CNN “It should be noted that in relation to the events that took place in 2015 and 2019 … the involved had been indi,cted and the military court had imposed prison sentences in both cases, along with additional punishments.”

A former unit member told CNN that Palestinians were subjected to excessive and violent treatment by Netza Yehuda soldiers. The anonymous member also claimed that commanders encouraged vigilante violence against Palestinians.

The whistleblower feared that the promotion of commanders from Netza Yehuda into other battalions and roles would spread criminal behavior throughout the IDF.

“A lot of us probably did not see Arabs, Palestinians in particular, as someone with rights – okay, like they’re really the occupier of some of the land, and they need to be moved,” he said, explaining the mentality of the units.

The soldier added that his unit was well exercised in performing acts of “collective punishment [against] Palestinians.”

Responding to CNN’s request for comment on the alleged abuses, the IDF asserted that the battalion “operates in a professional and ethical manner” and that its soldiers and commanders “act according to the orders and protocols expected of soldiers in the IDF.” 

The IDF also assured CNN that it would investigate “every exceptional incident” that and would be responsible.

The other Israeli units accused of human rights violations

The Yamam unit was accused of violations over the killing of Ahmad Jamil Fahd, who was shot by counterterrorism forces in 2021 near Ramallah; the alleged shooting of Bedouin man Sanad Salaam al-Harbad by Israel Border Police in Rahat in March 2022 and the alleged rape of a teenager at the Russian Compound (Moscobiyya detention center) in Jerusalem in 2021 by an interrogator from the Israeli Internal Security Forces.

Former director of the State Department’s political-military affairs bu,reau Josh ,Paul told CNN that there was “not even the slightest basis” to believe the three aforementioned units had made efforts to reform. 

Speaking on the alleged rape of a teenage boy in custody during a previous interview, Paul said that the allegation was credible. He alleged a charity had informed the State Department of the allegation and that Israel proceeded to shut down the charity’s base shortly after. 

“Do you know what happened the next day? The IDF went into the [charity’s] offices and removed all their computers and declared them a terrorist entity,” Paul told CNN.

Alleged violations after October 7

CNN cited three examples of alleged violations conducted by the IDF after October 7. 

While admitting that CNN couldn’t verify the civilian death count provided by Hamas or Israel, it cited the successful hostage rescue mission, which saw four hostages released from captivity in June. The hostages were being held in the Nuseirat refugee camp, and a firefight between terrorists and the IDF during the rescue mission led to “under 100 deaths,” according to Israel. Hamas claimed the number of casualties to have reached over 270. However, Hamas has regularly inflated numbers and fails to distinguish between civilians and combatants.

In addition to the rescue mission, CNN reported Israeli Border Police shot and killed a 3-year-old Palestinian girl in the West Bank in January and a 12-year-old boy in east Jerusalem in March.

Paul told CNN that, under the Leahy Law (1997), the US would be prohibited from supplying military aid to foreign security units credibly implicated in human rights violations. 

“Had the US used the leverage that Leahy laws provide over the years to encourage the IDF to crack down on misbehavior and to snuff out its current culture of impunity, we would have seen at the very least a much stronger unit discipline at a tactical level,” said Paul.

Commanders, such as those promoted from the Netza Yehuda battalions, would also be under vetting under the Leahy Law.