Israeli leaders discuss military readiness as reservists protest judicial overhaul

Israeli leaders discuss military readiness as reservists protest judicial overhaulJuly 20, 2023

Jerusalem, July 20 (IANS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior military officials have held discussions on the military’s readiness as reserve soldiers threatened to end their service if the contentious judicial overhaul plan proceeds.

The Defence Ministry said on Wednesday in a statement that Israel’s Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant updated the Prime Minister on the security situation and gave him an overview of the readiness of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Xinhua news agency reported.

The meeting came after Halevi told a parliamentary committee on Monday that calls by reservists to resign from their service harm the IDF and undermine national security.

On Wednesday, about 300 reservists with the Army’s Medical Corps announced that they were suspending their service. The group includes physicians, paramedics, and others.

At a press conference outside the Tel Hashomer military base near Tel Aviv, they presented the letters sent to their commanding officers, in which they announce their “immediate” suspension of service.

Eran Dolev, a former chief of the Medical Corps, said he decided to suspend his service because the government’s bid to pass bills that would deepen discrimination against women or allow medical staff not to attend patients due to his sexual orientation “cannot be accepted”.

The move came a day after 161 reserved Air Force officers released a statement announcing their immediate resignation from service.

The coalition government seeks to bring a bill that would cancel some of the Supreme Court’s powers for final votes in the Parliament next week. It has advanced other bills to overhaul the judicial system, throwing Israeli society into turmoil.

The anti-reform movement has staged some of the largest demonstrations in Israel since the 1980s, with protests taking place for 28 consecutive weeks following the announcement of the overhaul plan by the ruling coalition in January.

–IANS

int/khz

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