On Friday, August 9, State Department spokesmen Matthew Miller announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had determined that the Government of Israel had “effectively remediated” gross violations of human rights by the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion. Blinken’s determination, accordingly, renders the unit eligible for U.S. security assistance pursuant to the governing statute, the so-called Leahy law.
This decision appears directly contrary to the Leahy law. I would know.
As the former State Department official responsible for overseeing the Leahy vetting of foreign security units, I have written recently about how that process should work and, in practice, does not work when it comes to Israel.
Miller did not say what measures Israel had taken that justify the Secretary’s determination. The only known measures taken to date have been purely administrative remedies: in one case, the death of Omar Assad (see below), two Netzah Yehuda members were discharged and a commander was reprimanded. Indeed, an anonymous senior U.S. official speaking to Axios’s Barak David, invoked only those measures, and noted that the IDF has adopted additional vetting procedures for soldiers who seek to join the unit.
In seven and a half years as Director of the State Department office that implements the Leahy law worldwide, I have never seen a single case in which mere administrative measures constituted sufficient remediation. Incarceration for those directly responsible is the standard for remediation. That is because the Leahy law applies only to gross violations of human rights — the most grave of all violations, including extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and rape. These are serious crimes, including under Israeli law. In the United States, they are felonies. Under international law, they may not be subject to a statute of limitations.
And this is only one of several credible allegations of gross violations of human rights against Netzah Yehuda. There is no indication of any remedial action in any other case. According to the Axios article, the IDF told the U.S. that the criminal investigation against Netzah Yehuda did not materialize because Palestinian witnesses refused to testify. There is no indication that the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem ever independently verified this IDF claim. In my experience with Israel Leahy vetting, this epitomizes the State Department’s tendency to simply accept Israeli information without question.
The decision strongly suggests that the U.S. position is likely a result, in significant part, of pressure by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Months ago, when news broke that the State Department was considering Netzah Yehuda for ineligibility, Netanyahu expressed outrage and vowed to oppose application of the law. Against that backdrop, the Secretary’s decision sends a terrible message to Israel and others: that pressure on U.S. officials works, and that Israel is essentially de facto exempt from U.S. law. Worse yet, Israel seems to be getting that message — according to a recent CNN investigative report, Netzah Yehuda commanders have been promoted and are now training IDF units operating in Gaza.
More troubling still, the Secretary’s determination raises questions about the value the Department places on the lives of not just Palestinians, but Palestinian Americans as well. In 2022, members of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion detained Omar Assad, a 78-year old American citizen of Palestinian origin, without any apparent justification, bound and gagged him, and left him on the ground at a construction site in the middle of January (Wall Street Journal; IDF Commanders’ Investigation report). An hour later, soldiers found Assad dead of stress-induced heart attack. This is not a case where any Palestinian witnesses were necessary. Upon the publication of the internal IDF investigative report, the State Department said, “The United States expects a thorough criminal investigation and full accountability in this case.”
Yet, no member of Netzah Yehuda has ever been punished, or even charged, for Assad’s death.
This decision by Secretary Blinken, taken together with unconditional arms transfers to Israel, further undermines U.S. diplomatic credibility in the Near East and worldwide.