‘We serve the kingdom, not the king’: Israel’s reservists wrestle with conscience

Sasi Menachem has fought for the Israeli military for more than half his life. But as Binyamin Netanyahu’s hardline government presses ahead with a controversial effort to weaken the country’s judiciary, for the first time, he is considering not volunteering for reserve duty.

“I served in all the wars in the past 25 years, I lost friends, and it’s very hard to say I’m not going to turn up when the army calls,” he said, as protesters rallied outside the Israeli parliament in a vain attempt to stop the first part of the overhaul. “But we serve the kingdom, not the king.”

Since the battle over the judiciary erupted this year, tens of thousands in Israel’s crucial military reserve have wrestled with the same choice. And in recent days, an unprecedented number have announced they would cease volunteering for duty.

In advance of the landmark Knesset vote on Monday that limited the ability of Israel’s top court to strike down government decisions, Brothers in Arms, a group of 10,000 reservists, said its members would no longer volunteer. A day earlier, 1,100 air force reservists, including more than 400 pilots, made a similar announcement.

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The threats from within one of Israel’s vital institutions have underscored the depth of the divisions over the overhaul, which has sparked seven months of mass protests, drawn criticism from the US and sent the shekel tumbling. They have also provoked consternation among the high command of a nation obsessed with security.

[ Q&A: Why are people protesting in Israel and what happens next? ]

The Institute for National Security Studies, a think-tank with close ties to the defence establishment, said on Sunday that the “‘people’s army’ is in danger of dissolution”. Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, delivered an even bleaker message, warning that without “a strong and united defence force”, Israel would “no longer be able to exist as a country in the region”.

Rear admiral Daniel Hagari, chief spokesman for the Israeli military, said on Tuesday evening that it remained “operationally ready”. But he conceded that there had been an increase in requests from reservists to stop serving.

“If reservists do not show up for reserve duty in the long term, there will be damage to the military’s readiness,” he said.

Reservists cite various reasons for their decisions to stop volunteering. For some, it is a rejection of the judicial overhaul, which they fear could open the way for Netanyahu’s far-right and ultra religious allies to impose their worldview on the rest of society.

“The government is insane,” said one artillery reservist who joined the protest outside the Knesset. “I think they really believe we should have fundamentalist laws, and I’m afraid they’re going to take the country with them.”

Gal, a reservist tank commander, said the judicial fight had prompted him to act on long-standing reservations about the actions of the Israeli military in the West Bank, which Palestinians have long sought as the heart of a future state, but which Israel has occupied since 1967.

“I’m very against the settlements and everything happening in the West Bank ... Now extremist settlers like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are controlling the policy of the government,” he said, referring to finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“I don’t know if one day it won’t come to a point where they try to re-establish settlements in the Gaza Strip,” added Gal, who asked that his surname not be used. “It’s all against my beliefs.”

Another fear, according to Shaya Ben-Yehuda, from a veterans’ group, is that undermining Israel’s top court would expose soldiers to a risk of being indicted in international courts.

“As long as Israel had a strong supreme court and judiciary we could say we were judging our own people and there was no reason to indict them in an international court,” he said. “Now it might be ... a system where we can’t defend ourselves.”

Government officials have urged reservists not to protest, but on the whole avoided attacking them. But some have been more critical. Last week, Ben-Gvir, who never served in the military, shared a fictional video in which a pilot refused to provide support for ground troops after they refused to condemn the judicial overhaul.

The defence force said on Tuesday that it had fined one soldier and given a suspended sentence to another who did not respond to training call-ups. But other reservists planning to keep reporting for duty said they backed the decisions of comrades not to turn up. “When you’re negotiating with people like [the current government], you have to play on their terms,” said Yonatan, a naval reservist. “They only understand power.”

Officials fear the protests could hit the military in various ways. One is that missing training could diminish soldiers’ and pilots’ preparedness. A second is that it will create tensions between soldiers with differing views. A third is that the protests could embolden Israel’s enemies.

The leader of Hizbullah said that Monday had been Israel’s “worst” day since its founding in 1948. “This is what puts it on the path to collapse, fragmentation and disappearance, God willing,” Hassan Nasrallah said.

Most reservists who spoke to the Financial Times said they would stop their protests if Israel’s security was threatened. “If there’s a war, an imminent danger, we will be there,” said the artillery reservist.

But others worry that even if Israel’s reservists do rally around the flag in an emergency, the current wave of protests would still cause serious damage to the military. “Reserve duty is based on volunteering, on unity, and on operational fitness. On esprit de corps. These are much harder to repair, and will affect the army’s ability in wartime,” the INSS warned on Sunday.

Gal, the reservist tank commander, said he also expected the long-term impact to be the most serious. “If our external enemies do anything against us in the next few months, I think everyone will return, even if the laws are passed,” he said. “But I’m not sure about the long term. People are already talking about not sending their children to combat units. That will undermine the military. It’s already happening.”

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023