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The U.S. has decided that an Israeli army unit dedicated gross humanrights abuses in opposition to Palestinians within the West Financial institution earlier than the struggle in Gaza started, however it’s going to maintain off on any determination about help to the battalion whereas it critiques new info offered by Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated in a letter to Home Speaker Mike Johnson.
WASHINGTON: The U.S. has decided that an Israeli army unit dedicated gross human-rights abuses in opposition to Palestinians within the West Financial institution earlier than the struggle in Gaza started, however it’s going to maintain off on any determination about help to the battalion whereas it critiques new info offered by Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated in a letter to Home Speaker Mike Johnson.
The undated letter, obtained by The Related Press on Friday, defers a choice on whether or not to impose a first-ever block on U.S. help to an Israeli army unit over its therapy of Palestinians. Israeli leaders, anticipating the U.S. determination this week, have angrily protested any such help restrictions.
Blinken pressured that general U.S. army assist for Israel’s protection in opposition to Hamas and different threats wouldn’t be affected by the State Division’s eventual determination on the one unit. Johnson was instrumental this week in muscling via White Home-backed laws offering $26 billion in further funds for Israel’s protection and for aid of the rising humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
The U.S. declaration considerations a single Israeli unit and its actions in opposition to Palestinian civilians within the West Financial institution earlier than Israel’s struggle with Hamas in Gaza started in October. Whereas the unit will not be recognized in Blinken’s letter, it’s believed to be the Netzah Yehuda, which has traditionally been primarily based within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution.
The unit and a few of its members have been linked to abuses of civilians within the Palestinian territory, together with the dying of a 78-year-old Palestinian American man after his detention by the battalion’s forces in 2022.
The Israeli military introduced in 2022 that the unit was being redeployed to the Golan Heights close to the Syrian and Lebanese borders. Extra just lately, its troopers have been moved to Gaza to battle within the struggle in opposition to Hamas.
Blinken stated the Israeli authorities has to date not adequately addressed the abuses by the army unit. However “the Israeli authorities has introduced new info relating to the standing of the unit and we are going to interact on figuring out a path to efficient remediation for this unit,” he wrote.
A 1997 act generally known as the Leahy legislation obligates the U.S. to chop off army help to a overseas military unit that it deems has dedicated grave violations of worldwide legislation or human rights. However the legislation permits a waiver if the army has held the offenders accountable and acted to reform the unit.
The Leahy legislation has by no means been invoked in opposition to shut ally Israel.
After State Division critiques, Blinken wrote Johnson, he had decided that two Israeli Protection Drive items and several other civilian authority items have been concerned in vital rights abuses. However he additionally discovered that a kind of two Israeli army items and all of the civilian items had taken correct and efficient remediation measures.
The critiques come as protests and counterprotests over American army help for Israel’s struggle in opposition to Hamas in Gaza are roiling U.S. school campuses in addition to election-year politics at dwelling and relations overseas.
Though the sum of money at stake is comparatively small, singling out the unit could be embarrassing for Israel, whose leaders usually check with the army as “the world’s most ethical military.”
The U.S. and Israeli militaries have shut ties, routinely coaching collectively and sharing intelligence. It additionally would quantity to a different stinging U.S. rebuke of Israel’s insurance policies within the West Financial institution. The Biden administration has grown more and more vocal in its criticism of Israel’s therapy of the Palestinians and just lately imposed sanctions on numerous radical settlers for violence in opposition to Palestinians.
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Lee contributed from Beijing. Josef Federman contributed from Jerusalem.
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