No cut in aid, for now, to troubled Israeli units

U.S. awaits Israel action in wake of abuse claims before Hamas attack

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told the House speaker the Biden administration will not withhold military aid from a troubled Israeli military unit accused of human rights violations, so long as Israel continues with steps to hold the members of the unit accountable.

In an undated letter to the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, Blinken said the United States was working with Israel to address charges against the unit, the Netzah Yehuda battalion. Although the letter did not name the battalion, a U.S. official said the unit in question is Netzah Yehuda, which has been investigated for crimes in the West Bank predating the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that set off the war in the Gaza Strip.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss delicate diplomacy, said the Biden administration could still take action against Netzah Yehuda if it concludes Israel has not taken sufficient steps to hold its members to account.

The letter, obtained by The New York Times, said the State Department has determined, in addition to Netzah Yehuda, two other Israeli military units and two civilian units had also committed “gross human rights violations” against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

But the letter said the Biden administration had decided not to deny those four units military aid because Israel was already acting to “bring to justice” their culpable members.

Under the so-called Leahy Law, the U.S. government must deny aid to foreign military units found to have committed gross violations of human rights without accountability. The law allows for the targeting of individual units without cutting off entire foreign militaries.

It was not clear what practical impact any such move might have, given funding of specific Israeli units is hard to track and it is unclear whether the units mentioned in the letter receive U.S. training or equipment.

Still, the news last week U.S. officials were considering withholding aid from Israeli military units for abuses prompted a furious response from Israel and from Johnson, a strong supporter of the current Israeli government. Johnson said this week he had called the White House in protest and had received an assurance in writing none of the billions in additional U.S. aid to Israel approved by Congress this week would be affected.

The Biden administration has faced growing calls to restrict U.S. aid to Israel over its military offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack Oct. 7. President Joe Biden so far has declined to place conditions on U.S. aid over Israel’s devastating tactics in its latest war against Hamas, though he has taken several steps in response to violence by Israelis in the West Bank, including placing sanctions against several Israeli settlers for what the U.S. has called “extremist” acts of violence against Palestinians.

In his letter to the Republican House speaker, Blinken said two Israeli battalions and “civilian authority units,” none of which he named, had committed human rights abuses, but he had “determined that the Israeli government has conducted effective remediation of the units involved.” He defined remediation as a process in which a foreign government takes “effective steps to bring to justice the responsible members of the unit.”

In the case of Netzah Yehuda, which he did not cite by name, he said “there has not been effective remediation to date,” but the Israeli government “has presented new information regarding the status of the unit and we will engage on identifying a path to effective remediation for this unit.”

Netzah Yehuda, which was created to accommodate the religious practices of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, has been repeatedly accused of mistreating Palestinians.

In January 2022, according to witnesses, its soldiers bound and gagged a 78-year-old Palestinian American who died of a heart attack while in military custody. An investigation concluded the two soldiers who bound the man thought he was sleeping. The soldiers faced disciplinary action, but no criminal charges were brought.

The unit was transferred in 2022 from the West Bank to the Golan Heights in northern Israel, according to Blinken’s letter.