The 78-year-old man had just been visiting friends when he was arrested by the Israeli army. Why exactly is still unclear. His hands were tied, then he was beaten and left on the cold floor in a small building. When he begged for help, the soldiers guarding him did nothing. Ultimately, the man, who suffered from diabetes and heart problems, died.
The death of Palestinian-American Omar Abdalmajeed Asad is the most famous example of abuse by a notorious Israeli battalion, but certainly not the only one. The United States now wants to impose sanctions on this unit because it is alleged to have committed gross human rights violations.
The Netzah Yehuda Battalion has long been a source of concern within the Israeli armed forces. There are many stories about Palestinians being beaten up and severely abused. But Israeli peace activists or police units that try to intervene in settler violence can also receive a blow from these soldiers.
Netzah Yehuda, also known as the 97th Battalion of the Kfir Brigade, is a unique phenomenon: it consists entirely of ultra-Orthodox soldiers and far-right religious youth from the illegal settlements. The unit was established in 1999 specifically for this target group, so that religious men could also perform their military service. During their years of service they are guaranteed no women, and there is extra time for prayer and religious study.
‘Holy Mission’
This not only results in an extremely socially homogeneous group with its own subculture, but also a club with its own political line: if they have to supervise Palestinians, the soldiers see it as ‘a sacred mission’, a commander explained in 2017 during an interview with Maariv. In 2003, another soldier told the same newspaper that young people from the settlements had finally found a place where the army did not act against their own ideology.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has investigated several incidents involving the battalion in recent years and concluded: this is no longer an ordinary army unit, but a kind of independent militia that operates independently and according to its own rules. According to the newspaper, officers and soldiers have been saying for years that the club has its own norms and values, and that the top of the army would rather look away than intervene.
“During a routine operation in a Palestinian village, one of the boys would sometimes throw a grenade at a house or a car,” a soldier who had been away from the battalion for two years told Haaretz. “That was mostly just for laughs, but also because of the stories we had heard about what veterans in this unit used to do. It was important to constantly show that we were different.”
20 percent of convictions
The bond between the settlers and the battalion is close. This was also evident, for example, from a post in January 2022 on social media by Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right settler party Religious Zionism, and currently Minister of Finance. “As a settler, I can tell you that residents are happy when Netzah Yehuda is deployed in their sector. Then it is relatively quiet and safe again, because these boys know exactly what their mission is, who the enemy is, and who their brothers are. They go for contact and deterrence.”
Israeli NGO Yesh Din calculated that 17 of the 83 soldiers convicted of crimes against Palestinians between 2010 and 2022 served in the Netzah Yehuda Battalion – 20 percent of all convictions in this category, while the battalion accounted for less than 1 percent of the army.
Despite the many incidents, the battalion has never really been tackled in Israel, but the United States now plans to do so. The underlying message is that this unit behaves like a violent militia and violates human rights to such an extent that the American ally is forced to punish an Israeli army unit.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce his final decision on the sanctions in the coming days. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has already said he will resist with all his might, although the question is what he can do. According to him, the American action “at a time when we are fighting terrorist monsters” is the height of “absurdity” and a “moral low point.”
