{"id":1024059,"date":"2024-04-29T21:48:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T04:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/?p=1024059"},"modified":"2026-09-01T07:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:50:15","slug":"israeli-units-committed-gross-human-rights-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/2024\/04\/29\/des-unites-israeliennes-ont-commis-de-graves-violations-des-droits-de-lhomme\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Units Committed Gross Human Rights Violations Before Oct. 7, State Department Found \u2014 Yet Netzah Yehuda Escaped U.S. Sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 \u00ab\u00a0remediated.\u00a0\u00bb The fifth \u2014 understood to be Netzah Yehuda, the ultra-Orthodox nationalist battalion that has spent years terrorizing the West Bank as part of the Kfir Brigade \u2014 was given more time. Time, in Washington, is how you avoid applying the Leahy Law to an ally that is carrying out a genocide.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Secretary
The State Department spent months talking about sanctions and then declined to impose them. (AP Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said on April 19 that he had reached \u00ab\u00a0conclusions\u00a0\u00bb 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 \u00ab\u00a0submitted additional information\u00a0\u00bb and that the department was \u00ab\u00a0engaging with them in a process.\u00a0\u00bb He would not say when the process ended. He denied Israel was getting \u00ab\u00a0preferential treatment.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

\"House
Speaker Mike Johnson told a radio host he had already called the White House to kill the idea. (AP Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Omar Assad, Left Gagged in the Cold<\/h2>\n

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<\/a> called it \u00ab\u00a0a lapse in morality and inadequate judgment.\u00a0\u00bb No one was charged. Two soldiers were reportedly discharged. A commander was reprimanded. That is what \u00ab\u00a0remediation\u00a0\u00bb looks like when the victim is Palestinian and the killer wears an Israeli uniform.<\/p>\n

\"Antony
Blinken faced a full-court press from Netanyahu’s government to drop the threatened penalties. (AP Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Johnson bragged to Hugh Hewitt that he had called Jake Sullivan before the House even voted the Israel aid package. \u00ab\u00a0If they do, we’ll intervene,\u00a0\u00bb he said. Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz, and Yoav Gallant all lobbied Washington. Netanyahu vowed to \u00ab\u00a0fight it with all my strength.\u00a0\u00bb On August 9, 2024, spokesman Matthew Miller announced Blinken had decided Israel \u00ab\u00a0effectively remediated\u00a0\u00bb 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 \u00ab\u00a0an outrage and another example of special treatment for Israel.\u00a0\u00bb Reporting later said Netzah Yehuda commanders were promoted and helped train units operating in Gaza.<\/p>\n

A Law That Does Not Apply When the Ally Is Committing the Crime<\/h2>\n

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. \u00ab\u00a0We continue to believe that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the Palestinian situation,\u00a0\u00bb 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.<\/p>\n

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