July 31 (UPI) — Protests by reservists over a controversial judicial overhaul engineered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government could harm Israel’s military readiness, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday.
Gallant told members of the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in a closed-door meeting that refusal by reservists to serve in protest of the changes meant “there is a possibility of harm to readiness over the long term,” according to a readout of the meeting provided to media outlets.
While the minister assured lawmakers that the Israeli Defense Forces remain “capable of any mission” and damage done by the reservists’ protests is “relatively limited,” the country is in a “situation where it can explode on all fronts,” a reference to ongoing recent tensions along Israel’s border with Lebanon and in the West Bank.
There has been “damage to national resilience due to deep division and this could turn into an attack on the security of the country,” Gallant said.
Thousands of reservists from different units of the IDF, including hundreds of air force reserve pilots, have threatened to suspend their voluntary service over the judicial reforms, the first of which passed the Knesset by a razor-thin majority last week.
The new law prevents Israeli courts from weighing in on the reasonableness of government and ministerial decisions. It weakens the Supreme Court and diminishes the judiciary’s power to legally act against the Knesset, allowing a simple majority vote to override judicial decisions on legislation.
The move has produced months of impassioned protests by a wide sector of Israeli society that sees the effort as a power-grab by Netanyahu’s right-wing governing coalition and a blow to democracy in the country.
That effort comes as the prime minister continues to face corruption charges of fraud, breach of trust and allegedly accepting bribes.
In a letter addressed to members of the Knesset and top military officials before the vote, 1,142 reservists called on the government to reach broad agreements in order to strengthen the trust in the judicial system and to preserve its independence.
The reservists who signed the letter include 235 fighter pilots, 98 transport pilots, 89 helicopter pilots, 91 pilots serving in the flight school, and 165 elite air force commandos.
At his Monday meeting with the Knesset defense committee, Gallant took pains to warn enemies such as Iran and the Syrian-backed Hezbollah militia they are “mistaken” if they perceive the situation as an “opportunity to exploit what they see as the state of Israel’s weakness.”
Rather he asserted, they should still be wary of the effectiveness of Israel’s military.
