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Israel’s defence minister said he was taking steps to “ensure the security” of the country, after media reports he was trying to delay a judicial overhaul that has led thousands of reservists to threaten to stop volunteering for military service.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Friday evening that Yoav Gallant was trying to persuade government and opposition leaders to extend the current parliamentary session so that a vote set for next week on the first part of the controversial overhaul being pushed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government could be delayed until consensus had been reached.
In response, Gallant’s office said that he was “taking measures in order to reach a wide consensus, and in order to ensure the security of the state of Israel, while leaving [the military] separate from political discourse”.
The defence minister’s intervention comes amid a growing public mobilisation against the overhaul, with more than 1,100 reservists in Israel’s air force publishing a letter in which they threaten to stop presenting themselves for duty if government plans designed to rein in the judiciary become law.
The letter from the air crew followed similar threats from reservists in other parts of Israel’s armed forces, which have prompted mounting consternation among senior officers about the military’s preparedness.
In an unusually frank recognition of the concerns, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the military’s chief spokesman, said earlier on Friday that reservists’ failure to report for duty “hurts the [military] and state security”.
“Over the past days, it has become evident that cohesion has been damaged, [in a way] which will take a long time to repair,” he said.
However, hardliners in the government reacted with fury to the letter. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the ultranationalist national security minister, accused reservists of trying to “hold the Israeli government hostage and impose on it the political position of a minority”.
“We will not give in to this dangerous attempt to create chaos,” he said.
Government officials insist that the bill due to be passed next week is one of a number of measures needed to curb an overpowerful judiciary they believe has pursued a partisan, leftwing agenda. It would stop Israel’s top court from using the standard of “reasonableness” to strike down government decisions on issues such as appointments.
But critics say the proposals would remove key checks on Israeli governments, pave the way for the undermining of minority protections, foster corruption and damage the country’s economy.
Since the government unveiled its plans in January, Israeli politics has been pitched into a state of upheaval, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets around the country for 28 weeks in a row to protest against the plans.
Gallant’s intervention on Friday is the second time he has attempted to slow down the judicial overhaul over fears of its impact on the military. In March, he warned that division over the reforms posed an “immediate danger” to the country’s security.
Netanyahu responded then by announcing that he would sack Gallant, triggering a further round of protests that escalated into a brief general strike.
In the face of the protests and the strike, which closed shops, banks and Israeli embassies around the world, as well as grounding flights at Israel’s international airport, Netanyahu backed down, delaying the overhaul for three months, distancing himself from some of its most controversial elements, and announcing that Gallant would remain in post.
However, his government returned to the overhaul this month, after compromise talks with the opposition broke down.
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