US To Keep Funding Israeli Military Unit That Killed Elderly Palestinian American

Earlier reports said the US was going to sanction the unit, Netzah Yehuda, but Israeli officials lobbied against the plan

The State Department said Friday that the US will continue providing military aid to an Israeli military unit that was responsible for the death of 78-year-old Palestinian American Omar Assad.

In January 2022, Assad was detained by soldiers with the Netzah Yehuda Battalion at a temporary checkpoint in the West Bank. He was handcuffed, gagged, blindfolded, and left outside in the cold, where he died of a heart attack, which doctors said was stress-induced.

None of the soldiers involved in the incident faced criminal charges, but the State Department said the “violations by this unit have also been effectively remediated.” A US official told AFP that while no one was prosecuted for killing Assad, two of the soldiers involved were no longer in the military.

Members of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion had been involved in similar incidents in the past. In 2021, four soldiers were held on suspicion of beating and sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner.

Earlier this year, reports said that the US was planning to sanction Netzah Yehuda under the Leahy Laws, which prohibit foreign assistance to security forces guilty of human rights violations.

Israeli officials responded to the planned sanctions by launching a lobbying campaign, which delayed the sanctions and ultimately stopped them. “This unit can continue receiving security assistance from the United States of America,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.