Graduates of prestigious military program warn they won’t show up for reserve duty

Hundreds of graduates of the military’s prestigious Talpiot program have signed a letter saying they will not show up for voluntary reserve duty unless the government halts its plans to overhaul the judiciary.

“We demand that the government immediately stop and shelve all the legislative moves that harm the judicial system and the democratic regime in Israel,” the reservists say in a letter carried by Hebrew-language media outlets.

“For lack of any other option, and with a very heavy heart, we can no longer volunteer to serve a government that acts this way,” they add.

Talpiot is an elite IDF training program for soldiers who have demonstrated academic excellence in the sciences. The soldiers pursue academic degrees in physics, math or computer science while serving in the IDF.