Ex-security chiefs, Nobel laureates urge IDF to reverse dismissal of reservists who called to free hostages by ending war

Roughly 180 former senior officials from the security establishment and current academics have signed a letter to IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miarai and Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi urging them to reverse the IDF’s decision to dismiss the reservists who joined a public call for the government to free the remaining hostages by ending the war in Gaza.

“The IDF is not permitted to censor the statements of civilians, even if they are members of the reserve forces, when those statements are not made during active service,” the letter reads.

“It is also not permitted to demand that they refrain from a moral call to make the issue [of the hostages] a priority. Whether it is a formal decision to dismiss them or a ‘quiet dismissal’ in the form of a policy of not calling up those who signed such letters for reserve duty, this is an invalid sanction that violates the basic civil right to freedom of expression.”

Signatories of the letter include former IDF chiefs of staff Dan Halutz and Moshe Ya’alon; former Mossad chief Danny Yatom, former Shin Bet chief Carmi Gillon; retired IDF generals Nimrod Shefer and Guy Tzur; former deputy national security adviser Eran Etzion; and former Nobel Prize winners Aaron Ciechanover, Ada Yonath and Dan Shechtman.