The Biden administration has refused to restrict US funding to Israeli army units that committed rights violations.
Washington, DC – Elderly Palestinian American Omar Assad was handcuffed, blindfolded and gagged by Israeli soldiers and left to die in a cold car park.
His fatal detention in January 2022 sparked outrage and calls for accountability in the United States, with advocates urging the American government to apply the country’s own laws to restrict military aid to the Israeli unit that killed the 80-year-old United States citizen.
Israel’s notorious Netzah Yehuda battalion – who had detained Assad – had been accused of other abuses, as well.
But more than two years later, this week, the US announced that it will not apply the Leahy Law, which prohibits assistance to foreign military units that commit abuses, to restrict aid to any Israeli army divisions currently.
“It is outrageous that the secretary of state is breaching US law to continue a long streak of treating Israel as an exception to the law,” said Raed Jarrar, the advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a think tank in Washington, DC.
Last month, media reports indicated that the US was set to apply the Leahy Law to the Netzah Yehuda battalion, but after strong, public pushback from Israeli leaders, the US appears to have decided against the move.
Here, Al Jazeera looks at the Leahy Law, and how successive US administrations have failed to apply it to Israel.