Ex-Shayetet 13 commandos urge defense chief, who once headed naval unit, to oppose overhaul

Some 550 former naval commandos from Shayetet 13, including several ex-commanders of the elite IDF unit, urge Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to oppose the government’s proposed measures to transform Israel’s judicial system.

The group sends a public letter to Gallant, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and a retired general who came up in the military through Shayetet 13 and headed the unit in the 1990s. They note many of them served alongside him and say they put their lives on the line “to defend the State of Israel of the Declaration of Independence.”

“We, who belong to all parts of the nation and have many and varied political views… call on in this time of emergency for the State of Israel to do everything in your power to stop the legislation to weaken the judiciary, to safeguard Israeli democracy, and to act for dialogue between all parts of the State of Israel,” they write. “Just as we all learned in Shayetet 13.”