160 senior Air Force reservists announce refusal to volunteer for duty

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, the chief of the Israeli Air Force, at a ceremony on April 4, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)
Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, the chief of the Israeli Air Force, at a ceremony on April 4, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)

More than 160 reservists in key roles in the Israeli Air Force have issued a letter saying they are suspending their voluntary reserve duty as the government advances its plans to overhaul the judiciary.

In the letter, the senior officers in reserves say they are stopping showing up for volunteer duty, effective immediately, in response to the government passing the first reading of a key bill from the overhaul package — legislation aimed at preventing courts from reviewing government and ministers’ decisions based on their “reasonableness.”

“The final approval of these bills is a formal and short process, but one that will dramatically change the essence and face of the country, and will transform it from a democracy to a dictatorship,” the 161 reservists say.

“We hereby say that we are not ready to fulfill the tasks assigned to us, under a regime, in which the foundations of democracy are crudely removed one by one, and the opening through which [the government] continues to march the country towards a full-scale dictatorship, widens,” the letter says.

“Therefore, with a heavy heart, we hereby announce the immediate termination of our volunteering for reserve service,”  the reserve officers add.

The list includes two brigadier generals and numerous colonels, lieutenant colonels, majors, and captains, who serve as staff in the IAF headquarters, drone pilots, intelligence officers, and other key roles.

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