Reservist protest heads: Tens of thousands will refuse to serve, army is ‘disintegrating’

Leaders of the IDF reservists’ protest against the government’s judicial overhaul plan announce they are escalating their protest, starting a petition that people can sign and say they won’t show up for their volunteer duty if the legislation is passed into law, and predicting that tens of thousands will sign it.

The organizers say the plan would hand the government unlimited power and thus turn Israel into a “dictatorship,” demanding that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant halt the legislative protest: “The army is disintegrating before your eyes, and you have maintained silence for 11 weeks.”

They dismiss the new version announced this week, according to which most overhaul bills will be paused for 1.5 months and a bill to hand the government complete control of most judicial appointments will be passed soon: “This isn’t a softening, it’s fiction.”

The reservist protesters intend to demonstrate tomorrow near Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf will be attending a housing conference.