From the Liveblog of
Thursday, February 16, 2023
Yom Kippur War vets take tank from Golan memorial site to protest planned judicial changes
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A police investigation is launched after a group of former soldiers who fought in the Yom Kippur War remove a tank from a site in the Golan Heights that commemorates a famous battle during the 1973 conflict, in protest of the government’s push to upend the judiciary.
Video shows the protesters tying a banner to a trailer carrying the Sho’t tank, the Israeli term for the British-made Centurion, which was taken from Tel Saki.
“The soldiers of 1973 [Yom] Kippur are fighting for the character of the country,” the banner reads.
מעל מאה מלוחמי מלחמת יום הכיפור, בהם עטורי עיטורי העוז והמופת החלו כעת מצומת משמר הירדן הישנה שבגליל העליון במסעם למאבק על דמותה של המדינה בהתנגדות לרפורמה המשפטית. בראש שיירת המסע הוצב טנק סנטוריון מימי מלחמת כיפור ועליו פרוסה מגילת העצמאות. pic.twitter.com/GdW4MnYPSh
— יאיר קראוס (@yair_kraus) February 16, 2023
Pictures released by police showed the word “democracy” spray-painted in Hebrew on it.
A police statement says officers tracked down the tank at Kibbutz Gadot, near the Golan, after receiving a report it was stolen.
The driver of the truck that hauled the tank and the protest organizer were detained and taken for questioning.
The Times of Israel Community.