WHY IS U.S. FUNDING AN ISRAELI MILITARY UNIT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF AN AMERICAN?
BY
ALLAN C.BROWNFELD
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In
a strange decision by the Biden Administration, an Israeli security
unit found by the United States to have committed gross violations of
human rights will continue to receive U.S. Government funding.
According to the Washington Post, this decision “amounts to a victory
for Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a stinging defeat for
human rights experts inside the State Department and Pentagon who built a
case over years that certain Israeli units should be barred from U.S.
assistance under legislation known as the Leahy Laws.”
The
legislation created by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) prohibits the U.S.
Government from providing military assistance to individuals or security
force units that commit gross violations of human rights with impunity.
Consider what this Israeli military unit did to a U.S. citizen. Omar Assad was a 78-year
old former grocery store owner from Milwaukee who had been detained at a
West Bank checkpoint. Assad was reported to have suffered a
stress-induced heart attack, likely brought on by being bound, gagged
and held by Israeli forces, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) said at the
time. According to the IDF, his death was the result of “moral failure
and poor decision-making” by the soldiers who had detained him, for no
discernible reason.
Despite
the fact that the IDF members faced no criminal penalties, the State
Department said it was satisfied. Current and former U.S. officials
said that the decision by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to approve
continued funding for the unit defied past practices of withholding
assistance until accountability measures are taken, such as criminal
penalties for IDF personnel accused of gross human rights violations.
Charles
Blaha, a former State Department official in charge of the office that
implements the Leahy Laws, says, “I have never seen a case where
administrative measures such as the ones employed here were sufficient
for remediation. This is especially troubling when one of the
allegations against the unit is that the unit is responsible for the
death of an American citizen, which really calls into question the value
that the State Department places on Palestinian American lives.”
Blaha,
who retired last year from the State Department, said the consequences
didn’t match what amounts to “a criminal homicide.” In his view, “Just
think about what they did: This was a 78 year old man. They arrested
him for no legitimate reason—he was never charged with anything, they
gagged him, they bound him, they left him on the floor of a construction
site in the middle of January. The man died of a stress-induced heart
attack, according to the Israeli autopsy. The autopsy, however, found no
connection between what the soldiers did to him and his fatal heart
attack. In what U.S. court would that be credible? How would that hold up?”
This case does
not stand alone. A panel known as the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum, it
has been reported, said it found multiple instances of gross violations
of human rights by Netzah Yehuda and other Israeli units, all occurring
in the West Bank. In not a single case did the State Department take
any action. The legislation Sen. Leahy successfully introduced to
prevent American taxpayers from financing illegal and immoral behavior
by the IDF appears to have become a dead letter.
Four
members of this same battalion were arrested in October 2021 for
allegedly beating and sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee.
Israeli soldiers who take part in attacks on Palestinians in the
occupied West Bank rarely face prosecution despite widespread evidence
of rights violations. When Israeli settlers attack Palestinians,
watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and the Israeli human
rights organization B’Tselem say that soldiers often stand by or
directly join in the attacks.
Israeli
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is the subject of a war crimes
investigation by the International Criminal Court himself, visited
troops from the Netzah Yehuda battalion. He said, “No one in the world
can teach us about morals or values.”
Benjamin
Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, declares that Israel’s army “is
the most moral in the world.” Former State Department official Joseph
Blaha declares that, “Israel is essentially exempt from U.S. law.”
The
facts seem to contradict Mr. Netanyahu’s declaration. In early August,
the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem published its annual report
which it titled, “Welcome To Hell.” It reports torture and sexual abuse
of Palestinians jailed by the Israeli army. In B’Tselem’s view, Israel
has conducted a systematic policy of prisoner abuse and torture since
the start of the Gaza war, subjecting Palestinian detainees to acts
ranging from arbitrary violence to sexual abuse.
B’Tselem
concludes that,”The testimonies clearly indicate a systematic
institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all
Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The overall picture indicates
abuse and torture carried out under orders, in utter defiance of
Israel’s obligations under both domestic and international law.”
In
Israel itself, most of the media completely ignored the B’Tselem
report. Discussing this in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Gideon Levy
wrote: “Anyone who wants to become familiar with the spirit of the
times in Israel should note how most of the media outlets ignored the
report, which should have caused outrage and shock in Israel…A protestor
against Israel’s policy of detention without trial holds a sign reading
‘Guantanamo here’…”
Levy
points out that, “When you read the 94 pages of the B’Tselem report…you
understand that it wasn’t an exceptional incident. It’s the routine of
torture, which has become a policy. As opposed to the torture by Shin
Bet, which presumably had a security-minded purpose—-to extract
information—-here it’s solely to satisfy the darkest and sickest
sadistic urges….The indifference to all these things defines Israel.
The public legitimization defines Israel. In the Guantanamo Bay
detention camp that was opened by the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks , 9
prisoners were killed in 20 years. Here it’s 60 detainees in 10
months. Need anything more be said?”
Israel
is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S.foreign aid since its
founding—-receiving about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total
military and economic assistance. Currently, it receives about $3.3
billion annually.
Should
American taxpayers continue to finance groups like the unit which killed
an innocent American for no reason—-and for which no one was held
responsible? Should a system outlined by the Israeli human rights group
B’Tselem be supported by American taxpayers? The actions by Israel’s
current government violate basic American values. Our policy should
reflect our values which, at the present time, it does not seem to do.
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Allan
C.Brownfeld is a nationally syndicated columnist and is editor of
ISSUES, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism (
www.acjna.org).