Israel: Netzah Yehudah Battalion Carries Out War Crimes In the West Bank, Including the Killing of Palestinian-American Omar Assad

CULPRIT: Netzah Yehuda Battalion (formerly known as Nahal Haredi)

FULL UNIT INFO: 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion, 900th Kfir Brigade, 340th Idan
Armored Division, Central Regional Command

SUMMARY

The 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion (גדוד נצח יהודה), previously known as Nahal Haredi, is a battalion in the Kfir Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), within the IDF Central Command, that has committed gross violations of human rights and war crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank between 2015 and 2022, the period investigated by Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

Between 2015 and 2022, the battalion has been involved in a number of grave incidents involving abuses of Palestinian civilians, including shooting and killing unarmed civilians, torture, physical assault, beating, and sexual assault, in violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. During this period, soldiers from the unit killed three Palestinians – Iyad Zakariya Hamed (38), Qassem Abbasi (16) and Palestinian-American Omar Assad (78) – in incidents in which soldiers used lethal force against unarmed civilians without justification. In almost every case (as documented below), soldiers were found to be lying or covering up the incidents to suggest that they were acting in self-defense.

The Netzah Yehuda Battalion has violated international humanitarian law (IHL) in its treatment of Palestinian civilians, who are protected under the law of occupation, as well as international human rights law (IHRL). IHL requires Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territory to protect Palestinian civilians and treat them humanely in all circumstances, as detailed below.  International human rights law also requires Israeli authorities to respect the human rights of Palestinians, and bars arbitrary killing, torture, and abuse. Specifically, Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits subjecting any individual to "torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," while Article 10 demands that anyone "deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person."

The Netzah Yehuda battalion had two commanders in the period under review in this investigation.  Lt. Col. Mati Shevach served as the commander of the Netzah Yehuda from July 2020 to August 2022, when Lt. Col. Shlomo Sheeran was appointed its commander. Military commanders are culpable for the actions of their subordinates under the doctrine of command or superior responsibility. This doctrine makes commanders criminally responsible for the crimes of their subordinates because of the superior-subordinate relationship with the perpetrators, either because they knew or had reason to know that these crimes had been committed or were about to be committed, and despite this knowledge, willfully failed to prevent or punish these crimes. The doctrine of command responsibility is part of customary international law. Lt. Col. Shevach and Lt. Col. Sheeran should therefore be held liable for the crimes of the battalion.

The Israeli government has failed to hold individual soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda battalion meaningfully accountable for the grave crimes in which they have been implicated, contributing to a broader culture of impunity and widespread and systematic abuses in the Israeli military. It is illegal under Israeli law to publish the names of soldiers under investigation, but gag orders and other restrictions almost always remain even after a conviction. As documented below, between 2015 and 2022 numerous soldiers from the battalion have committed killings, beatings, physical and sexual torture and abuse, usually in violation of Israeli military laws and regulations. While the Israeli Military Police has investigated some of these incidents, any punitive measures imposed have largely not fit the crimes, and have not changed the culture of the unit as evidenced by ongoing documented abuses and killings. 

There is no evidence that Israel has held the unit's commanders meaningfully accountable in any way, except for the reprimand and demotion of an unnamed commander in connection with the murder of Palestinian-American Omar Assad. Indeed, given the numerous abuses committed over the years, there appears to be a culture of impunity that empowers the perpetrators and effectively encourages others to commit grave crimes.d. Instead, the Israeli military has promoted at least two of the commanders of the unit to higher positions, including Lt. Col. Mati Shevach, the commander of the unit at the time of the killing of Omar Assad, who was promoted to the position of Deputy Commander of the Kfir Brigade. 

In light of the persistent failure of domestic accountability for grave abuses, the international community should act urgently to impose some measure of accountability by sanctioning the Israeli military units and other security forces responsible for grave abuses. At minimum, the U.S. government should sanction the Netzah Yehuda Battalion as authorized under the Leahy Law and ban it from receiving any further U.S. military funding, joint training or other resources or engagement as part of US military assistance to Israel. In addition, the International Criminal Court should investigate the battalion and its commanders for their commission of war crimes as part of its ongoing investigation into the Situation in Palestine.  

The Leahy Law authorizes the State Department and the Defense Department to suspend US military assistance to a specific foreign military unit if they find it has committed gross violations of internationally recognized human rights and those responsible have not been brought to justice. Under 22 U.S. Code § 2304, which governs the provision of security assistance, gross violations include "torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges and trial, causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons, and other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, or the security of person."

The ICC should also investigate Netzah Yehuda Battalion soldiers and commanders for violating a number of war crimes as defined by the Rome Statute (Article 8). The Israeli occupation of the West Bank means that the actions of soldiers are subject to the laws governing international armed conflict and occupation. The actions of the soldiers in each of the incidents documented by DAWN meet the standards of elements of a number of war crimes. Additionally, the commanders of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion during the period under review, Lt. Col. Mati Shevach and Lt. Col. Shlomo Sheeran, have command responsibility for the actions of their soldiers, and therefore in the commission of war crimes (Article 28).

BACKGROUND ABOUT THE NETZAH YEHUDA BATTALION

The IDF created the Netzah Yehuda Battalion in 1999 to allow Haredi Orthodox Jewish men, most of whom are exempt from military service, to be drafted into a combat unit. To that end, the military designed the unit to accommodate their religious and social convictions, including various religious dietary regulations, and by not permitting women and non-Jews to serve in the unit. The battalion is led by Lt. Col. Shlomo Sheeran, who assumed command in August 2022. The previous commander, Lt. Col. Mati Shevach, led the unit from July 2020 to August 2022. According to the website of the Netzah Yehuda Association, a US-based organization that provides material support to the soldiers in the battalion, the unit operates in the Ramallah and Jenin areas of the West Bank, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In November 2022, it was reported that the battalion was beginning a training deployment to the Jordan Valley area of the occupied West Bank after several months of operational deployment in the Ramallah area. In August 2022, Lt. Col. Shevach was promoted to the position of Deputy Commander of the Kfir Brigade, to which Netzah Yehuda belongs.

There is a close relationship between the Netzah Yehuda Battalion and the settler movement, which has been reported by Israeli media, as well as acknowledged openly by Israeli politicians. According to an Israeli defense official, settlers "view on the ground is that this battalion belongs to them, that it's a force that works for the settlement enterprise." In January 2022, MK Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party, who has repeatedly defended the actions of the unit, posted on social media, "As a settler, I'm telling you that the residents [settlers] are happy every time that Netzah Yehuda is deployed in their sector." Unlike other Israeli battalions, Netzah Yehuda seems to have a religious nationalist ideology that matches the settlement movement, making it a challenge to take punitive measures against soldiers for human rights violations against Palestinians, even when Israeli army leadership has recognized this phenomenon.

The repeated human rights violations and abuses by soldiers from Netzah Yehuda, particularly in the wake of the death of Assad, has led to a growing call from Israeli journalists and editorial boards – and even within the Israeli military itself – for the unit to be disbanded. In the first of three op-eds in the space of a week, a Haaretz editorial, "Israeli Military Chief's Test: Disband Violent IDF Brigade, or Be Partner in Crime," on February 1, 2022 openly called on the IDF Chief of Staff, Aviv Kochavi, to disband the Netzah Yehuda. The next day, Haaretz columnist Yigal Levy published his own opinion, "Time to Do Away With the Netzah Yehuda Battalion," putting the battalion into a broader context of religio-political, right-wing violence: "This political-religious battalion stands out not only for its cruelty to Palestinians, but also with other displays of its violent impulses…" Then, a week, later on February 9, 2022, a lengthy article by Yaniv Kubovich, "Lies, Violence and Far-right Ideology: The West Bank Militia Formed Inside the Israeli Army," again in Haaretz, went further and alleged the battalion was effectively acting as an independent militia, akin to the notorious Phalangist militia in southern Lebanon that committed war crimes and massacres in service to Israel during its 1982 invasion and occupation of Lebanon. The most recent call for the dissolution of the unit came on August 24, 2022, the same day that that the Israeli military suspended four battalion soldiers after being caught on video beating two Palestinians; Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Nahman Shai (who was a military spokesperson from 1988 to 1991), called for the unit "to be disbanded."

INTERNATIONAL LAW STANDARDS

International humanitarian law (IHL) requires Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territory to protect Palestinian civilians and treat them humanely in all circumstances, as specified in Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Conventions (1949). Article 75 of the Additional Protocol I (1977) specifies that:

2. The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilian or by military agents:(a) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular:

     (a) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular:

         (i) murder;
         (ii) torture of all kinds, whether physical or mental;
         (iii) corporal punishment; and
         (iv) mutilation;

     (b) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault;

     (c) the taking of hostages;

     (d) collective punishments; and

     (e) threats to commit any of the foregoing acts.

Article 75 also extends all the protections of the Article to anyone who may be detained by the Occupying Forces. While Israel has ratified the Geneva Conventions, it has not ratified Additional Protocol I. However, in its 2004 Advisory Opinion on the "Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," the International Court of Justice reaffirmed "the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention' as well as Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem." Furthermore, most of the violations and crimes documented in this report are considered part of customary international law.

In addition to IHL, international human rights law requires Israeli authorities to respect the human rights of Palestinians, and bars arbitrary killing, torture, and abuse. Specifically, Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Israel has ratified, prohibits subjecting any individual to "torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," while Article 10 demands that anyone "deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person." International human rights law also limits the intentional lethal use of firearms – shooting to kill – to circumstances in which it is strictly necessary to protect life, and in which no other, less extreme, option is viable. The Convention Against Torture, which Israel also has ratified, also prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. 

KILLING OF OMAR ASSAD

In the early morning hours of January 12, 2022, soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda battalion detained 78-year-old Palestinian-American Omar Assad as they operated a makeshift checkpoint in the center of Jiljiliya village. Jiljiliya, approximately 8 miles northeast of Ramallah, rarely sees Israeli military operations, according to Assad's brother, who like Omar is a resident of the village, who spoke to DAWN in September 2022. That morning, soldiers forced Assad out of his vehicle and took him to the courtyard of a house under construction about 100 meters from the intersection where they stopped him. The soldiers left him bound, gagged, blindfolded, and exposed to the elements on a cold night. 

An initial Israeli military report indicated that Assad was detained because he was not carrying his ID papers. Assad only possessed a US passport; Israel had been holding up the process of the Palestinian Authority issuing him identity papers. However, according to the military report, soldiers made no effort to verify his identity or otherwise investigate him. There were other men also detained at the same location that morning all of whom were blindfolded. According to one of the detainees, soldiers did not subsequently interrogate any of the detainees but simply left them to sit and wait, blindfolded, bound, and – in Assad's case – gagged.

More than an hour later, after the soldiers departed, some of the other detained men found Assad lying on the ground unconscious, still bound, gagged and blindfolded. One of the men called the village physician, Dr. Islam Abu Zaher, to come to Assad's aid. In his report, Dr. Abu Zaher described finding Assad "down on his face and tied by his hands and his eyes covered, no pulse, no respiratory activity, not responding". After trying to resuscitate Mr. Assad for approximately 30 minutes with both CPR and a defibrillator, Dr. Abu Zaher pronounced him dead. According to a statement by the Israeli military in response to the news of Assad's demise, the 78-year-old "was apprehended after resisting a check." 

According to eyewitnesses, "​​[Assad] was held for more than an hour with a cloth tied around his eyes and a gag over his mouth." An autopsy subsequently determined that Assad suffered a heart attack while still bound. The post-mortem examination by the Palestinian Medico Legal Center (center for forensic medicine) determined that:

• "bleeding located in the inner part of the upper and lower eyelids of both eyes described in the Postmortem Examination concurs that it occurred as a result of pressure on the eyes due to the blindfold;"
• "abrasions and bruises described in the injuries section were the result of external violence;" and
• "bruises on the scalp described in the autopsy report are caused by traumatic injuries to the head."

The medical examiner's report concluded: "the cause of death is the sudden cessation of the heart muscle, caused by psychological stress due to the external violence to which he has been subjected. Stress-induced sudden cardiac arrest due to external injuries."

A researcher with Israeli human rights group B'Tselem visited Jiljiliya later the same day, on January 12, and interviewed witnesses to Assad's detention and treatment. The organization's report documents what transpired: soldiers were "pulling him forcefully from his car, tying his hands, blindfolding him, pushing him violently into the courtyard, and throwing him carelessly to the ground. Before leaving, they took the zip ties off 'As'ad's [sic] wrists, in utter indifference to the fact that he was unconscious and possibly dead, and left him lying there without extending first aid or calling an ambulance."

The fact that the unit's soldiers blindfolded, gagged and bound Assad is significant and introduces elements of culpability not only for his death but also for "torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" and the "flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of person," both of which are listed in the US Foreign Assistance Act, Section 116 and 502B(d)(1) as gross violations of human rights. 

Blindfolding Assad also violated Israeli military orders, which prohibit blindfolding detainees. In response to a 2019 lawsuit regarding blindfolding detainees, the IDF's OC Central Command and the West Bank Legal Advisor stipulated: 

• "Military orders and the relevant regulations do not allow covering detainees' eyes, rather only covering the eyes of arrestees and even then only in situations when there is an operational need or while transporting the arrestees from the field to a prison facility." (paragraph #3)
• "To clarify, the command regulations permit covering the eyes only of arrestees and only when there exists an operational need. Therefore, when dealing with detainees, soldiers are not authorized to cover a detainee's eyes." (paragraph #22)
• "To be clear, military orders and regulations do not allow covering detainees' eyes. In that regard, the orders are as clear as possible." (paragraph #28)
• "[IDF] forces operating in the West Bank are frequently briefed on the regulations concerning both arrests and detention." (paragraph #34)
• "Military orders and regulations forbid covering detainees' eyes, and steps have and will be regularly taken to clarify the law to [IDF] forces operating in the area." (paragraph #40(2))

Eitay Mack, an Israeli lawyer, brought the lawsuit on behalf of Palestinian shepherds who were being repeatedly detained and blindfolded because Israeli settlers and soldiers claimed their sheep were wandering into Israeli-controlled. The suit included expert testimony from  Dr. Batina Birmans, a senior neurologist at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and Dr. Zvi Beninga, a specialist in family medicine, who explained that "blindfolding and similar measures that cause sensory deprivation are typically likely to cause fear, anxiety and high levels of stress" (paragraph #28 in the petition). According to the findings of the medical exam released by the Palestinian Ministry of Justice, Omar Assad's death was caused by "stress-induced sudden cardiac arrest due to external violence."

The UN Committee Against Torture has affirmed that blindfolding constitutes torture, while the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has repeatedly cited blindfolding as a tactic of torture when reporting on different countries' practices. The blindfolding, gagging and physical restraints on Mr. Assad's  hands, being left exposed in the middle of the night in cold weather, created stress leading to a heart attack. The lack of monitoring and care of Assad, an elderly man in poor health, by the Israeli soldiers of Netzah Yehuda amounts to callous neglect and deprivation of dignity. The use of sensory deprivation tactics in clear violation of the Israeli Army's rules and protocols for detention demonstrates malice and intent to cause harm.

IMPUNITY FOR ABUSIVE SOLDIERS

On January 26, the Washington Post reported that soldiers involved in the incident claimed that they had untied Assad's constraints before leaving the site, assumed he was asleep, and therefore did not check his vital signs, effectively leaving him to die in the cold. However, the newspaper reported that according to one eyewitness, Mraweh Abdulrahman, one soldier appeared to bend over next to Assad, then "stood up and spoke quietly with some of the other soldiers…He watched a soldier return to the man and partly cut loose the plastic handcuffs that were binding his wrists. 'Then they just left,' he said of the soldiers."

At the time, Israeli military officials described this incident as a moral failure and a tragedy, effectively excusing the soldiers of any responsibility for Assad's death. 

Haaretz reported that:

"Senior officers who learned the details of the incident expressed shock at the soldiers' behavior. "'They didn't see a human being in front of them," the officers told Haaretz. "They delayed him during a routine activity, without sufficient cause. They lay him down and tied him up in the freezing cold, in almost zero degrees."

"When other Palestinians alerted the soldiers to his condition, the soldiers removed them and did not let them approach As'ad. And then the soldiers just left. This is not murder, but it's an appalling incident. And it's not just low-ranking soldiers. This was a platoon commander and a company commander."

However, Maj. General Yehuda Fuchs, commander of the Israeli army's Central Command, seemed to excuse the soldiers of responsibility for the death, citing an "ethical failure" but stating that the soldiers did not act out of malice. IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi echoed the sentiment in the same statement: "The investigation concluded that the incident was a grave and unfortunate event, resulting from a moral failure and poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers."

On February 1, 2022, the Washington Post reported that as the result of an internal Israeli military review of the incident, "the commander of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion…will be reprimanded and the platoon commander and company commanders will both be removed from their positions. They will not serve in commanding roles for two years, according to the military." 

The disciplinary measures taken against the three officers in Assad's case did not meet the Leahy Law requirement for a foreign government to bring "responsible members of the security forces unit to justice." The soldiers involved in the incident appear to have avoided any penalty, despite the rebuke from military commanders. Furthermore, it is necessary to take into consideration the broader context of Israeli military investigations into incidents involving Netzah Yehudah, and not only this specific case, when assessing the Israeli military's willingness and ability to pursue accountability. 

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price responded to the Israeli public statement: "The United States expects a thorough criminal investigation and full accountability in this case, and we welcome receiving additional information on these efforts as soon as possible." In Israel, however,  media reports indicated that there would not be a criminal probe. Other articles suggested that Israeli military police had opened an investigation that could lead to criminal charges. However, according to journalist Emanuel Fabian, who has covered Netzah Yehuda for the Times of Israel and who spoke to DAWN, "it is extremely unlikely that there will be an investigation," and that the history of announcing investigations only for them to be left without conclusion – as documented by Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy – is the likely outcome in this case as well. When soldiers have faced charges, they are often for operational issues, such as exceeding authority, rather than for the criminal activity enacted against Palestinian victims.

Lt. Col. Mati Shevach, led the unit from July 2020 to August 2022, and was apparently the commander who was reprimanded. However, in August 2022, Lt. Col. Shevach was promoted to the position of Deputy Commander of the Kfir Brigade, to which Netzah Yehuda belongs.

The lack of accountability for the soldiers who killed Omar Assad and their commanders is the norm for the Israeli military. In March 2022, Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights NGO, published a data sheet, "Law Enforcement on Soldiers Suspected of Harming Palestinians and their Property," notably finding that:

• The odds that a Palestinian would see his or her complaint result in the prosecution of the soldier who harmed them: 2%.
• 72% of all complaints that were filed in 2019–2020 following suspected offenses committed by soldiers against Palestinians in which a decision was reached were closed with no criminal investigation.

The organization concluded: 

"The data indicates that the military law enforcement system continues to avoid investigating and prosecuting soldiers who harm Palestinians, thereby shirking its duty to prevent harm to Palestinians and their property and to prosecute Israeli commanders and soldiers who violate this duty."

According to B'tselem: 

"[A]s soon as the operational investigation was completed, its insignificance quickly became clear: the battalion commander was reprimanded, and two other commanders were removed from their positions and barred from command roles for two years. As usual, the military announced the launch of [a military police] investigation into the incident. Yet B'Tselem's years of experience indicate that this investigation, too, is part of the MAG Corps' sophisticated whitewashing system. Its primary purpose is to silence criticism directed at the military – and at Israel – over the incident. It is not intended to uncover the truth or to hold those responsible accountable, and is certainly not meant [to] prevent the recurrence of such cases or ensure As'ad's [sic] family even a modicum of justice."

LEAHY LAW SANCTIONS APPROPRIATE

This case meets the threshold of a "gross violation of human rights" (GVHR) of the Leahy Law on the basis that Assad suffered 'torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment' and 'flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of person,' amounting to an 'extrajudicial killing' by soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion. The deliberate actions of the soldiers – in contravention of explicit Israeli regulations for detention – demonstrated malice towards and complete disrespect for the physical integrity of Assad. Those actions were direct causes of his death – not merely contributing factors – based on the findings of the medical professionals who attended to and examined Assad. 

Netzah Yehuda soldiers physically abused Assad when they abducted him from his vehicle in the middle of the night; blindfolded, bound and gagged him; left him without access to any assistance in cold weather; and did not perform any action to check his condition, even when they unbound one of his hands. Blindfolding Assad while he was detained was in direct contradiction of Israeli military code, as confirmed in the 2019 lawsuit. At no point did the Israeli operational investigation or public comments by officials address the element of blindfolding or that the cause of death was directly attributed to the treatment Assad suffered while he was detained, according to the medical examiner's report.

DAWN's research and findings demonstrate that the killing of Assad fits the GVHR standard defined by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (Section 502B) of the Leahy Law. The Leahy Law requires that states take "effective steps to bring the responsible members of the security forces unit to justice." Since the Israeli military has not undertaken any effective steps to bring the responsible soldiers to justice, the unit should be vetted by the Departments of State and Defense and added to the list of units ineligible to receive U.S. military assistance.