Likud minister slams reported US plan to sanction IDF unit as ‘absurd and unacceptable’

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi joins a chorus of Israeli lawmakers in criticizing reported US plans to announce sanctions against an IDF battalion for alleged human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.

“Israel is at war, the IDF is on the frontline, and the United States, our great friend, who has said it supports us in defeating Hamas, imposes sanctions on a unit or soldiers from a unit in the IDF?!,” Karhi posts on X, formerly Twitter.

Having served himself in the Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has been at the center of several controversies in the past connected to right-wing extremism and violence against Palestinians, Karhi calls the reported plan “absurd and unacceptable.”

“As a Netzah Yehuda graduate, I salute all IDF soldiers, and Netzah Yehuda soldiers in particular, who risk their lives for the people of Israel. One must not fall into the hypocritical honey trap of the BDS and its metastases,” he writes.

The Likud minister’s comments come after the Axios news site reported the planned sanctions, quoting sources who said the move would ban the battalion and its members from receiving any US military assistance or training.