Officer dismissed for not waking up his soldiers

The head of IDF’s Northern Command dismisses a reservist company commander who refused to wake up his troops for an exercise last month on the grounds that they were not given the required amount of sleep, which he felt put them at an unnecessary risk of accidents and injury.

On May 25, Maj. Meni Eytan of the Yiftah Reserve Brigade was ordered to wake his soldiers for an exercise the night before they were to finish their reserve service.

He refused, arguing that the soldiers had not slept for the full six hours that are required by IDF protocol the day before soldiers can operate a car. Eytan was told that the soldiers would be able to make up whatever sleep they needed after the exercise was over.

However, as the exercise was due to end that day and the soldiers would likely be motivated to return to their families and civilian lives rather than stay on an army base in order to make up sleep hours, Eytan insisted on the extra sleep time before, not after, the exercise.

His commanding officers quickly called for his dismissal on the grounds of insubordination, but the move was stayed pending an investigation.

Following an investigation into the incident, the head of the Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick, accepted the commanding officers’ requests and dismiss Eytan from his position, ending his years-long career as a reservist company commander.

“The general noted the many years of service of the company commander,” the army says, but determined that Eytan’s refusal went against the expectations of a company commander and “harms the nature of the battalion’s belief in the fighting.”

The army adds that “lessons will be learned” from the incident for the future.

In the days following the incident, Eytan became a cause celebre, with his current and former soldiers lauding him as a dedicated commander who was looking out for their well-being. A Facebook post by Eytan’s wife in which she described him as a devoted officer and explained that her husband knew all too well about the dangers of driving while tired, as he’d lost his sister in a car accident, garnered nearly 1,500 “likes” and 1,000 “shares.”

— Judah Ari Gross