This is the first case in which the US imposes sanctions against an Israeli military unit. The Netzach Yehuda Battalion will be excluded from US funding. Why?
Sanctions against the IDF, the Israeli armed forces – such intentions were announced a few days ago by none other than the US Secretary of State, who is Israel's closest ally. The plans mainly refer to the Netzach Yehuda battalion. (“Judea Forever"), against whose members there are accusations of violating the human rights of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank of the Jordan River.
The media reports that the US is investigating five military units on suspicion of violating human rights, but the planned sanctions target only one of them. The plans are to freeze all military aid to Netzach Yehuda. and to limit its members' participation in US-funded training. The Israeli government has already announced that it will fight against these sanctions.
Religious Military Corps
The battalion “Netzach Yehuda" was founded at the end of the last century as a religious special operations corps – the aim is to enable military service even to ultra-Orthodox Jews who otherwise cannot serve for religious reasons. In the religious corps, they are given time for prayer and study of sacred texts, food meets strict religious requirements, and interaction with female soldiers is limited. About 1,000 people are marching under the flags of the battalion in question. Its existence is a controversial topic among Orthodox Jews, who reject military service.
Soldiers in the battalion are volunteers because otherwise Orthodox Jews are exempt from military service. According to the law, any Israeli who has attended a religious school up to a certain age has the right to refuse military service. However, more and more politicians are demanding that this rule be changed. In fact, the Supreme Court already ruled in 1998 that this practice is discriminatory. But after the terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel and the military response - the entry of the Israeli army into the Gaza Strip, many Orthodox Jews volunteered for the army.
The battalion includes both ultra-orthodox Jews and people with a religious-nationalist attitude. Among them are radical settlers on the West Bank who support the far-right party in the government coalition. The American news portal Axios also reports that over time the battalion was joined by more and more supporters of the "Hilltop" youth organization. – it is commented that these are radicalized young people from the settler movement who are prone to violence. This organization was last week sanctioned by the EU for attacks against Palestinians.
What do the fighters of "Netzach Yehuda" accuse?
The battalion “Netzach Yehuda" was initially stationed in the occupied West Bank. At the end of 2022, he was transferred to northern Israel. And today he also participates in the battles in the Gaza Strip. Newspaper “Times of Israel" writes that the name of the battalion is often mentioned in the context of extremism and violence against Palestinians. According to Axios, the US government has been monitoring the battalion's activities since 2022, when there were violent attacks against Palestinian civilians.
Men from this battalion are said to have held a nearly 80-year-old man shackled for hours. This Palestinian with an American passport died just a few hours later of a heart attack as a result of the stress he suffered – “Washington Post" and other media believe that it was this stress that caused his death. At the time, the Israeli armed forces condemned what had been done as a “moral error": those responsible had made a bad decision. Two officers were demoted, a third was reprimanded. But there was no criminal prosecution.
The case attracted a lot of international attention – mostly because it was an elderly person with dual citizenship. The US State Department even requested an investigation. And human rights activists list other cases of violence and torture against Palestinians.
"The height of moral decline"
The Israeli government reacted with outrage to the news of the planned sanctions. A few days ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote the following on the X social network: “Sanctions cannot be imposed on the Israeli army" and added that his government would respond with all possible means. “At a time when our soldiers are fighting against the monsters of terror, the intention to sanction an IDF unit is the height of absurdity and moral decay," the prime minister also wrote. And the Israeli armed forces, the IDF, announced that they had no information about sanctions against their units.
Sanctions against the Israeli army – this is something new. But the US has already imposed sanctions aimed at Israel: against extremist settlers and against Ben-Zion Gopstein, whom it considers a confidant of far-right National Security Minister Ben-Gvir. In addition, the US included in its sanctions lists two organizations that financially support extremist settlers. The American authorities have already blocked properties on the territory of the country. Another ban was issued: US citizens and people who are on US territory are not allowed to enter into business relations with the sanctioned organizations.