Israel has sidelined an entire reserve battalion from the occupied West Bank after one of its soldiers, caught on camera detaining CNN journalists, said they were acting out of "revenge" against Palestinians, reports the New York Times. The CNN crew, filming an illegal settler outpost near the Palestinian village of Tayasir, reported that a cameraman was put in a chokehold and that the crew was held for about two hours. The network has its own account of the incident here. But it wasn't just the rough treatment of the journalists that became an issue: In footage from the scene, a soldier was recorded saying the West Bank was "for the Jews" and linking their actions to the death of an Israeli teenager in a March 21 car collision involving a Palestinian driver.
On Monday, Israel's military said the reserve battalion would be pulled back for additional training. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir called the incident a "grave ethical" breach. "Weapons are to be used solely for the purpose of carrying out the mission, and never for revenge," he said in a statement. The unit is made up largely of veterans of the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion, long criticized for its treatment of Palestinians and previously examined—though not ultimately penalized—by the US under the Leahy Law, which bars foreign troops accused of rights violations from receiving US training. The Israeli army said it had apologized to the CNN journalists.
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