Far-right minister panned for opposing IDF combat duty for anti-government protesters

Far-right Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu drew outrage by saying Tuesday that he would not like to have Israelis who took part in the mass anti-government protests in Tel Aviv over the past four years serve as combat soldiers in the military.

“I don’t want to draft someone from Kaplan to enlist in combat [duty], and in the end they won’t storm into battle,” Eliyahu said at an event at Ironi Alef High School in Tel Aviv, referring to Kaplan Street, the central artery in the city where mass protests against the government’s judicial overhaul agenda and management of the Gaza hostage crisis have taken place in recent years.

“I want to change the education system, so that people will give their soul and their spirit to the country,” declared Eliyahu, a member of Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party.

On the political right, “Kaplan” has become an epithet for anti-government activists.

During the anti-overhaul protests in 2023, thousands of reservists, including fighter pilots, who opposed the government’s plan to weaken the judiciary threatened to stop volunteering for reserve duty if the legislation passed — a threat viewed by many on the right as a public declaration of intent to refuse to show up for duty that signaled weakness to Israel’s enemies.

After the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, and the ensuing multifront war, no such refusal ended up materializing.

In a recent campaign ad from the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party depicting an argument over conscription and Torah study, one man yells at another: “You’ve begun to think like a non-Jew! Go to Kaplan!” The ad drew criticism from those who said it insulted opponents of the government by casting them as opponents of Israel and Judaism.

Eliyahu was slammed for his comments by bereaved parents who lost sons in the Gaza war after they had taken part in the anti-government protests.

Izhar Shay, a former politician and father of Staff Sgt. Yaron Shay, said on social media: “Dear minister, it’s a shame that you did want to draft my son, hero of Israel,” who “both demonstrated at Kaplan, and didn’t hesitate to storm dozens of Nukhba terrorists and save the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians.”

Shay advised Eliyahu not to bother fasting this year on Yom Kippur — the Jewish Day of Atonement — since “such a sin between a man and his fellow man, especially one that tarnishes the sacrifices of those who died while sanctifying God’s name, won’t be cleansed by any prayer or fast.”

Ruby Chen, father of Staff Sgt. Itay Chen, said: “You lowlife minister. My son, hero of Israel, protested at Kaplan for a better country, and charged with his tank into the hellscape and fell in battle. Take off your kippa because there is no connection between you and the Jewish religion, especially before Yom Kippur.”

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who chairs the opposition B’Yachad party, similarly linked Eliyahu’s remark to Yom Kippur, saying the minister must atone for it.

“Today, Eliyahu hurt so many holy fallen soldiers and their relatives who protested at Kaplan,” he posted online. “I have personally visited dozens of such bereaved families. Eliyahu will need to go to all these families, and between the graves of our holy ones at Mount Herzl [military cemetery], and to ask forgiveness for defiling their memory.”

Further condemnations came in from various opposition politicians, while there was no response from fellow coalition members.

Eliyahu himself claimed in a subsequent video statement that his words had been taken out of context, and that he hadn’t meant to refer to everyone who attended anti-government protests.

He said he had intended to convey that while Israel can force people to enlist, it cannot force them to eagerly rush into battle, which highlights the importance of the education system.

“I want to clarify: I wasn’t talking about everyone who protested at Kaplan. I was talking about the handful of extremists who called for refusal, asked not to show up for reserve duty, and tore Israeli society apart,” he said.

Eliyahu has repeatedly courted controversy in the past few years.

In November 2023, he said he wouldn’t rule out nuking Gaza, saying in an interview that it was “an option.” He also repeatedly called for Israeli occupation, annexation and resettlement of the Strip, said Israel was pushing to “wipe out” Gaza and make it Jewish, and said Israel should “starve” Gazans and bomb humanitarian aid.

He has also broken into an IDF detention facility in protest of the prosecution of troops accused of abusing a Palestinian prisoner, shared a social media post appearing to advocate the reoccupation of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, blamed deadly terror attacks abroad on left-wing Israeli politicians, and blamed the October 7 killings and abductions on the IDF hostage point man.