Netzah Yehudah Unit Responsible for Extrajudicial Killings of Palestinian and U.S. Citizens
(Washington D.C., August 9, 2024): The U.S. State Department has officially notified Congress of its intent to proceed with a new authorization for weapons to Israel, including 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) guidance kits to Israel, despite extensive evidence documenting the Israel Defense Force's (IDF) use of U.S. weapons to carry out war crimes and crimes against humanity, said DAWN today.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also announced his decision not to sanction the IDF's notorious Netzah Yehuda battalion, despite credible evidence of its systematic and gross human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, in violation of strict U.S. laws requiring the imposition of such sanctions.
"It is mind-boggling that despite the overwhelming evidence of the IDF's unprecedented crimes in Gaza that has shocked the conscience of the entire world, the Biden administration is greenlighting the transfer of additional lethal weapons to Israel," said Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN's executive director. "It is hard to comprehend how the Biden administration can justify rewarding Israel with new weapons, despite Israel's persistent defiance of every single plea the Biden administration has made urging a modicum of restraint, and despite the very apparent fact that such sales violate black letter U.S. laws prohibiting weapons to gross abusers like Israel."
JDAMs, manufactured by Boeing, are kits that turn unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions. The Biden administration had delayed the sale since May 2024, reportedly to pressure Israel not to go into Rafah. Since then, despite multiple requests from the Biden administration for Israel to limit its offensive in Gaza, and the clear orders of the International Court of Justice for Israel to halt its incursion into Rafah, Israel has proceeded to carry out ruthless attacks on civilians throughout the strip.
"Congress should introduce a Joint Resolution of Disapproval to halt this sale," said Raed Jarrar, DAWN's advocacy director. "Congressional oversight and debate are imperative, given the chaos within the senior staff of the White House, State Department, and Defense Department, which has led to an unprecedented wave of senior staff resignations over continued support for Israel's war in Gaza."
There is extensive documentation identifying the use of U.S. weapons in atrocities in Gaza. In May 2024, the Biden administration issued a 46-page unclassified report revealing that Israel violated international law using U.S. weapons in its military campaign in Gaza. In April 2024, Amnesty International submitted a report to the federal government detailing how American bombs and other weapons have been used in Israeli attacks that could constitute war crimes. Israel used Boeing-manufactured JDAMs, exactly the weapons the Biden administration is now proposing to sell again to Israel, in October 2023 in "two deadly, unlawful airstrikes on homes full of Palestinian civilians," according to satellite imagery examined by Amnesty International's weapons experts and remote sensing analysts.
"The Biden Administration has been relentless in its support for war crimes, and today's notification just adds a further count to the charges to which everyone from the President to a junior licensing officer is exposing themselves. At this point, there can be no claims of ignorance and no lack of foreknowledge of the harm these weapons will cause," said Josh Paul, DAWN's senior advisor. "Not only do these weapons pose a continuing threat to Palestinians in Gaza, but they may also indicate an American 'green light' for an Israeli attack on Lebanon, which will only increase and deepen the suffering of all people in the region."
In addition, the State Department today announced its decision that it would not sanction the IDF's notorious Netzah Yehuda Unit, despite extensive evidence documenting the unit's role in gross violations of human rights, including the killing of U.S. citizen Omar Asad. Secretary Blinken informed Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that the State Department would close the investigation into the battalion's human rights abuses without any punitive measures.
This follows months of unprecedented delay and hindrance by Secretary Blinken to avoid sanctioning the Israeli unit despite the recommendations of the team in the State Department responsible for making sanctions determinations. According to Secretary Blinken, the decision was made because the IDF provided "evidence" that it had remediated the behavior of the battalion and addressed U.S. concerns by discharging the involved soldiers from combat missions and changing the vetting process for future soldiers.
"The Biden Administration's unwillingness to designate Netzah Yehudah under the Leahy Laws is not just a further endorsement of Israeli war crimes, but an egregious assault on the rule of law at home," said Paul. "I don't know how Antony Blinken looks at himself in the mirror."
*The phrase "targeted killings" has been corrected to "extrajudicial killings" in the following line: Netzah Yehudah Unit Responsible for Extrajudicial Killings of Palestinian and U.S. Citizens.
