It is an IDF battalion that is regularly singled out and is the subject of much controversy. Made up largely of ultra-Orthodox soldiers, the “Netzah Yehuda” unit now appears to be in the crosshairs of the United States, which provides substantial aid to the Israeli army.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked about reports that the United States would stop military aid to certain units of the Israeli army, in connection with possible human rights violations in the West Bank before the 7 October and the unprecedented Hamas attack.
The US official referred to the “Leahy Act”, which prohibits the US government from using funds to assist foreign security force units when there is credible information implicating them in human rights violations. “This is an important law that we apply at all levels,” he added. “And when we do these investigations, it takes time. It has to be done very carefully, both in terms of gathering the facts and analyzing them, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. And I think that it is fair to say that you will see the results very soon,” he continued. This significant decision comes as the US Congress voted for new emergency aid of 26 billion dollars to Israel, including 13 billion in military aid. If American sanctions were taken, it would be a first.
Possible human rights violations
Created in the late 1990s, the Yetzah Nehuda unit, also called “Battalion 97”, was formed to encourage the enlistment of young people from the ultra-Orthodox community. It has since been extended to non-Orthodox soldiers, but never to women. According to the daily Haaretz, the “Netzah Yehuda” battalion is the only single-sex squad in the Israeli army. Still according to the Israeli newspaper, the unit has also become over time the lair of far-right and ultranationalist recruits, such as the “hilltop youth”, installed in the West Bank and rejected by the others. army units. “Netzah Yehuda” also welcomes “illegal” settlers. According to an Israeli military official from the West Bank cited by Haaretz“the guys from Battalion 97 are regularly briefed by their rabbis, the latter having in their eyes more legitimacy than the IDF officers”.
The United States reportedly began investigating this battalion in 2022, in response to numerous incidents in the West Bank, particularly the death of Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American. According to The Guardian, the septuagenarian died of a heart attack after being arrested, detained in difficult conditions and abandoned unconscious by Israeli soldiers of “Netzah Yehuda”. A story that hardly surprises the soldiers who passed through this squad.
Under cover of anonymity, one of them testified to the newspaper Haaretz. “When we were doing routine operations in Zone B [zone sous administration civile de l’Autorité palestinienne mais sous contrôle militaire israélien], for no reason at all, members of the battalion threw stun grenades into houses and cars. For the guys from Netzah Yehuda, it was a way of asserting their virility but also, and above all, reminding them that they were at home.” Many members of Battalion 97 were born or reside in the West Bank settlements.
A militia protected by the power in place
In 2020, the militia was almost disbanded, without success. The majority of generals advocated a dissolution of “Battalion 97” and the dissemination of its fighters to other less ideologically marked battalions, recalls a Defense Ministry official. “But, some senior officers made us understand that dissolving Netzah Yehuda would amount to a declaration of war for the Yesha leaders [“Rédemption”, acronyme hébreu du Conseil de Judée, Samarie et Gaza, organe représentatif et groupe de pression des colons nationalistes religieux]he explains, still to Haaretz.
Regularly, the national and international press as well as human rights NGOs point out the clemency which seems to be granted to this unit. For example, the officers involved in the death of the American-Palestinian septuagenarian were simply deprived of rising in rank in their battalion for two years.
Following Antony Blinken’s statement, Benjamin Netanyahu opposed any measures against his army. “The Israeli army must not be sanctioned,” he wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter), without mentioning the Netzah Yehuda unit by name. “At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose sanctions on a unit of the Israeli army is the height of absurdity and an attack on morality,” he said SATURDAY.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for his part, declared that he was studying “the measures to be taken to prevent the implementation” of the sanctions. “The damage caused to one unit affects our entire army, this is not a welcome step on the part of our friends and allies,” he added in a statement published overnight from Sunday to Monday. . Since October 7, this unit has not only been confined to missions in the West Bank and has also intervened in Gaza.