IDF officer whose promotion was blocked by Katz calls move ‘political,’ not ‘professional’

A senior reservist officer on Saturday slammed Defense Minister Israel Katz’s decision to block his promotion and appointment to a new role as a “political decision, not a professional one.”

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir announced a round of senior promotions and appointments on Thursday that included giving Col. (res.) German Giltman, who retired from the IDF in 2022, the rank of brigadier general and a senior role in the Ground Forces. Katz took issue with this appointment, citing Giltman’s apparent involvement in the Brothers in Arms protest group prior to the outbreak of the war.

Katz, in addition to rejecting outright the promotion of Giltman, has frozen all senior appointments in the IDF amid a fight over probes into the military’s failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The defense minister has been fighting a months-long, escalating campaign against Zamir, which has centered on senior appointments and drawn accusations from some military officials that Katz is trying to politicize the army, as well as claims that he is trying to pin all the blame for October 7 on the army and absolve the government of responsibility.

In a message to officers in the 162nd Division, where Giltman has served for more than 700 days in reserves, he wrote that he will remain in his current reservist role.

“The entire General Staff Forum expressed full support for my candidacy, but unfortunately, Minister Katz decided to disqualify the appointment. This is a political decision, not a professional one, and that is how it should be regarded,” Giltman said in the message, published in full by Army Radio.

“I have never called for refusal to serve or for non-volunteering, and I denounce such calls. Throughout my adult life, from my regular service to my reserve duty, I have served the state with pride,” Giltman wrote, alluding to Katz’s accusation that he had advocated refusal.

The defense minister has described Giltman as one of the “leaders” of Brothers in Arms, as images circulated of the reservist officer wearing a t-shirt from the organization. Giltman has said he wasn’t involved in Brothers in Arms, but rather a different reservist protest group, which never advocated any form of refusal, and that the photo is from a one-time press conference in which all reservist protest groups participated.

“In light of the uproar, and out of a desire to keep the IDF clean [of politics], I agreed to withdraw my candidacy for the position in question, but I’m not going anywhere,” Giltman wrote to the officers.

“After much thought, I have decided to continue serving as the division chief of staff. It is important to me to remain above politics. We have a heavy responsibility on our shoulders, and this country has only one army,” he added.

Katz reiterates he won’t approve Zamir’s latest promotions

Katz reiterated on Saturday that he would not approve Zamir’s latest promotions, in a lengthy statement slamming the military chief on several topics.

He had already said he was freezing senior appointments in the IDF for 30 days, until the defense establishment comptroller conducts a re-investigation of the military’s review of its earlier internal probes into the failures surrounding the October 7 attack.

The external review, conducted by Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman and other former senior officers, found that some of the initial probes were inadequate, and also pointed to several topics that were not investigated at all.

Zamir has since instructed various IDF units to complete their investigations, and he has also appointed officers to investigate topics that were not previously probed, chief among them the military’s failed handling of intelligence reports that outlined Hamas’s intent to launch a wide-scale attack against Israel.

“I expected the chief of staff to act according to the committee’s recommendations and complete and deepen the investigations, but I was surprised when he summoned officers and imposed various sanctions on them without updating me on such a significant step and without consultation,” Katz said, referring to Zamir’s decision to dismiss several officers from the military over their failures on October 7.

“Since I am the authority who, by law, approves the appointment of senior IDF officers from the rank of colonel and above, I tasked the defense establishment comptroller — the most qualified professional body — with completing the investigations and presenting findings that would allow me to consider my position on senior appointments,” Katz said.

“I also asked the chief of staff to wait 30 days on the appointments so that I would have the required information and we could act according to the procedure we formulated, which includes prior consultations,” he continued.

“Unfortunately, the chief of staff did not comply with my request and held the appointments discussion,” he said, referring to Zamir’s announcement on Thursday.

Katz added that “it is important to emphasize that regarding the IDF’s operational activity in the various arenas, I maintain direct and continuous contact with the chief of staff and the IDF brass, as well as numerous joint discussions chaired by the prime minister, and none of this is affected.”