With Secretary of State Anthony Blinken days away from announcing sanctions on the Netzach Yehudah battalion for alleged human rights violations, Battalion veteran Eitan Birenbaum spoke with JFeed today (Sunday) on the feelings of the soldiers.
Birenbaum, who served two years in the battalion and now serves in its reserve battalion Netzach Yisrael, said that in general, the soldiers, who hail from religious or ultra-Orthodox homes, are focused primarily on preparing for Passover and reliving the Exodus.
He himself says that he did not remember any irregular or illegal actions by his unit vis-a-vis Palestinians when serving in Judea and Samaria, while serving near the battalion commander.
Birenbaum said that when the announcement of the sanctions hit the news, a WhatsApp group with perhaps 2,000 soldiers was formed in which members of the group expressed great anger at the President intervening in an internal IDF matter, in "our IDF," and that the army could discipline and manage its own affairs without outside intervention.
