Five Israeli military units committed gross human-rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. The U.S. State Department said so out loud on April 29, 2024. Four units were waved through as «remediated.» The fifth — understood to be Netzah Yehuda, the ultra-Orthodox nationalist battalion that has spent years terrorizing the West Bank as part of the Kfir Brigade — was given more time. Time, in Washington, is how you avoid applying the Leahy Law to an ally that is carrying out a genocide.
The Leahy Laws bar U.S. assistance to foreign security units credibly implicated in gross violations when the responsible parties have not been brought to justice. On paper that is a ban. In practice successive administrations have carved Israel a hole in the statute large enough to drive $3.8 billion a year through. Vedant Patel, then the department’s principal deputy spokesperson, told reporters the partnership would not be touched. That was the point.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said on April 19 that he had reached «conclusions» on West Bank abuse claims. Then he wrote House Speaker Mike Johnson that new information had arrived about the fifth unit. Patel said Israel had «submitted additional information» and that the department was «engaging with them in a process.» He would not say when the process ended. He denied Israel was getting «preferential treatment.»
Omar Assad, Left Gagged in the Cold
Netzah Yehuda’s American problem had a name. In January 2022, soldiers from the battalion detained Omar Assad, a 78-year-old American Palestinian, at a sudden checkpoint in Jiljilya. Witnesses said he was handcuffed, gagged, and left on the ground in near-freezing weather. The soldiers left. He was found dead of cardiac arrest. An IDF write-up called it «a lapse in morality and inadequate judgment.» No one was charged. Two soldiers were reportedly discharged. A commander was reprimanded. That is what «remediation» looks like when the victim is Palestinian and the killer wears an Israeli uniform.
Johnson bragged to Hugh Hewitt that he had called Jake Sullivan before the House even voted the Israel aid package. «If they do, we’ll intervene,» he said. Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz, and Yoav Gallant all lobbied Washington. Netanyahu vowed to «fight it with all my strength.» On August 9, 2024, spokesman Matthew Miller announced Blinken had decided Israel «effectively remediated» Netzah Yehuda. No sanction. The battalion stayed eligible for U.S. weapons. Charles Blaha, the former director of the State Department office that actually ran Leahy vetting, called it «an outrage and another example of special treatment for Israel.» Reporting later said Netzah Yehuda commanders were promoted and helped train units operating in Gaza.
A Law That Does Not Apply When the Ally Is Committing the Crime
While the department was performing this consultation, Israel was leveling Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were already dead by the time Patel was asked about the International Criminal Court. «We continue to believe that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the Palestinian situation,» he said. Washington spent 2024 and 2025 treating ICC warrants for Israeli officials as an attack on the alliance, not as a response to a slaughter funded with American aircraft, bombs, and artillery. The Leahy Law was written for this exact file. The file was closed without a single unit losing a dollar.
For how this government talks about law when the target is not Israel, see The AEGIS Alliance’s Politics and US News desks. Background on Netzah Yehuda is in Al Jazeera and ProPublica.
