US aid with a sting - opinion

• Published date: 23 April 2024
• Author: YOAV KARNY
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

In the context of the demonstrations of support for Israel in the past six months, this is certainly the most tangible reminder – to anyone in the Middle East who may have toyed with the hope that the special relationship between Washington and Jerusalem was at an end – that the relationship holds and is robust. The "Don't" doctrine has teeth

But a day beforehand, we heard that the US was getting close to a decision on whether to penalize an IDF unit suspected of repeatedly breaching human rights. The basis of the punishment is a 27-year-old law, named after its initiator, former senator Patrick Leahy. It mandates the cessation of military aid to foreign security forces if there is credible information that they have engaged in "a gross violation of human rights" (GVHR).

GVHR is not defined in the Leahy Law. The US Department of State says that it applies the definition in the US Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, namely "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 denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of person..." that are committed "under color of law" – that is, committed by people in their capacity as members of a security force.

As far as the US Department of Defense is concerned, the Leahy Law that applies to it states that it may not allocate funding "for any training, equipment, or other assistance for a unit of a foreign security force if the Secretary of Defense has credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights."

The law need not be applied to a country if "The Secretary of Defense, after consultation with the Secretary of State, determines that the government of such country has taken all necessary corrective steps." An exception may also be granted "if the equipment or other assistance is necessary to assist in disaster relief operations or other humanitarian or national security emergencies."

According to a report on the Axios website by Barak Ravid, the decision has already been made: the unit in question will be penalized.

An important distinction should be made

IT IS NECESSARY to make an important distinction: cessation of assistance to the Netzah Yehuda battalion, drawn from Israel's haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) population, which is the unit against which the accusations have been made, will not be a...