Regarding purported human rights abuses in the West Bank, the US appears on the verge of sanctioning an Israeli military unit—a move that the Israeli prime minister fiercely condemned as “the height of absurdity.”
When questioned by a reporter in Italy regarding reports that his department had suggested cutting military aid to an Israeli unit involved in violent incidents in the West Bank, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken alluded to such actions.
The accusations come before Hamas’s lethal attacks on southern Israel on October 7.
Blinken stated that his department was looking into a law that forbids providing military support to foreign security forces that violate human rights without consequence, but he did not elaborate.
He then added: “I think it’s fair to say that you’ll see results very soon. I’ve made determinations; you can expect to see them in the days ahead.”
The State Department ordered embassy employees in Israel to look into reports of wrongdoing in the West Bank by the army’s ultra-Orthodox Netzach Yehuda battalion in late 2022.
This included an incident in January 2022 where a Palestinian American, then 78 years old, passed away from a heart attack while in detention.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily to any suggestion of sanctions against Israeli forces, despite the fact that the accusations came before the Hamas attacks and Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza.
“In recent weeks, I have been working against the imposition of sanctions on Israeli citizens, including in my conversations with senior American government officials,” he posted late Saturday on social media platform X.
“At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low. The government headed by me will act by all means against these moves.”
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant similarly slammed the possibility of sanctions, after discussing the issue with army chief Herzi Halevi.
“The commanders and troops of the Netzach Yehuda battalion operate on the frontline — since the outbreak of the war, they have been working to push Hezbollah forces from the northern border, to thwart terrorism in Judea and Samaria, and most recently, they are operating to dismantle Hamas brigades in Gaza,” he said, adding that they were operating in line with international law and the Israeli military’s values.
“To withdraw its intention to impose sanctions” on the unit, he pleaded with Washington.
According to three US officials with knowledge of the situation, as published by the Axios website on Saturday, Blinken was anticipated to declare sanctions against the battalion “within days.”
The sanctions, it stated, would prevent the unit from obtaining any military assistance or training from the US.
A special State Department panel had recommended in December that Blinken bar a number of military and police units operating in the West Bank from receiving any US aid, according to a previous ProPublica report.
The most recent events occurred while a bill to give Israel an additional $26 billion in emergency aid was being overwhelmingly approved by the US House of Representatives on Saturday.
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