Unit in Israel’s Defense Forces With a Record of Abuses Faces Sanction Threat from the US

“Tel Aviv, Israel” analysts and Israeli media report that an Israeli battalion has a lengthy history of infractions and impunity, contradicting claims made by US media that Washington is going to discipline the unit for human rights crimes against Palestinians.

Established in 1999 with the intention of recruiting ultra-Orthodox Jewish males, the Netzah Yehuda unit has since welcomed recruits of different religious backgrounds, including those living in Israeli settlements inside the occupied West Bank, where it was stationed until 2022.

Since Israel’s establishment in 1948, the vast majority of young Israelis have been required to serve in the military. However, the ultra-Orthodox population has been mostly excused from this need, a practice that has come under growing public criticism since the beginning of the current conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Netzah Yehuda assures ultra-Orthodox recruits that they will serve in accordance with their beliefs, which include a rigorous kosher diet, complete seclusion from women, and designated time for prayer and Torah study.

Formerly marginalized ultra-Orthodox adolescents “who see the army as a means of integrating into Israeli society and earning a living” have been the unit’s primary recruits, according to David Khalfa of the French research tank Jean-Jaures Foundation.

“Rather, radical religious nationalists with strong hostility towards Arabs” have also been lured to it, he told AFP.

“Marked by a strong ideological and sociological leaning, the battalion has acquired a scandal-prone reputation.”

Netzah Yehuda is unique among army groups in that it is entirely composed of volunteers, according to Marwa Maziad, a visiting professor of Israel studies at the US University of Maryland, who spoke with the Middle East Eye website.

She also said that “the battalion attracts religious Zionists, who combine Jewish religious interpretations with nationalist militarism” and are strongly linked to the most radical elements of Israel’s settlement movement.

There are three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis living in settlements that are deemed illegal by international law in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

“A large part of the unit’s soldiers were born and raised in the West Bank,” Khalfa claimed, stressing that Netzah Yehuda was regularly sent to police and “counter-insurgency” operations in the Palestinian territories.

“A significant number of them—not all—committed abuses and the army hardly imposed any sanctions,”  claimed Khalfa.

The Israeli military recently issued a statement defending their soldiers in response to “reports regarding sanctions” against Netzah Yehuda.

“The battalion is professionally and bravely conducting operations in accordance with the IDF’s (army) code of ethics and with full commitment to international law,” according to it.

‘Ideology of nationalism’
U.S. embassy personnel in Israel were ordered by the US State Department to conduct an investigation into the January 20, 2022, killing of 78-year-old Palestinian-American Omar Assad at the hands of Netzah Yehuda troops in the West Bank. This incident brought visibility to the unit.

Assad lay on his stomach for almost an hour in the cold winter night while handcuffed, gagged, and blinded.

Several Israeli media sites reported on occurrences involving the battalion that had occurred after Assad’s murder and had mostly gone unpunished. These instances included assaults on Bedouin inhabitants of Israel and beatings of Palestinians.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Netzah Yehuda military essentially enabled the settlers to assault Palestinians. On the other hand, the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper criticized the “clear ideological connection between the residents of the settlements and the unauthorised outposts and the soldiers” inside the unit.

Some military authorities see Netzah Yehuda as “dangerous for the army to bring together so many young people sharing the same nationalist ideology,” as Khalfa puts it, and “within the army there are lively debates” over the topic.

With the United States, Israel’s most trusted friend and military aid source, investigating Assad’s assassination, the battalion was sent to the occupied Golan Heights.

However, Netzah Yehuda has been transferred to the West Bank and even moved into Gaza since the Israel-Hamas conflict started on October 7.

That “sense of impunity” that Netzah Yehuda has is “what leads the United States to consider sanctions against them,” according to Khalfa.