US May Impose Sanctions on Israel Army Unit for Human Rights Violations

The State Department recommended Blinken take action against Israeli army units accused of extra-judicial killings and rapes months ago

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in the coming days to announce sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda battalion of the Israeli army for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, Axios reported on 20 April.

The US has never imposed sanctions on an Israeli military unit in the past, despite many reports the Israeli army commits war crimes and targets civilians from international rights groups and the UN during decades of occupation.

The Netzah Yehuda battalion is a special unit for male ultra-orthodox Jewish soldiers. It became a magnet for "Hilltop Youth," religious settlers not accepted into other combat units. The unit was stationed in the occupied West Bank, allowing its soldiers to terrorize Palestinians.

The sanctions will ban the battalion and its members from receiving US military assistance or training, three US sources with knowledge of the issue told Axios.

Any such sanctions would be based on the "Leahy Law," passed in 1997 and authored by then-Senator Patrick Leahy. The law prohibits the US from providing military aid and training to foreign security, military, and police units credibly alleged to have committed human rights violations.

On Thursday, ProPublica reported that a special State Department panel recommended in December that Secretary of State Antony Blinken blacklist multiple Israeli military and police units from receiving US aid on the basis of the Leahy Law.

But Blinken sat on the recommendation and took no action, according to current and former State Department officials.

“They’ve been sitting in his briefcase since then,” one official said.

At the same time, Blinken used emergency measures to accelerate US weapons shipments to the Israeli army for its war on Gaza.

🔗Source: The Cradle

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