TEL AVIV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th July, 2023) The Israeli parliament's defense committee will hold an official meeting with the country's defense minister, Yoav Galant, next week to discuss the combat readiness of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) amid reservists' protests against the judicial reform, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
The meeting will take place at the ministry's headquarters in Tel Aviv, according to Israel's Galei Zahal radio. The goal of the discussion will be to assess the ability of the Israeli military to carry out duties in ordinary and emergency situations amid reservists' protests, the report said. This will be the first meeting in such a format since the beginning of the judicial reform crisis early in the year, the radio added.
Mass protests against the Israeli judicial system reform have reached the IDF, as reservists from dozens of units have threatened to abandon their duties. On Saturday, The Times of Israel newspaper reported that about 10,000 IDF reserve soldiers stated that they would not voluntary step up for military duty in the event Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government proceeds with its widely opposed judicial reform.
On July 21, more than a thousand reserve soldiers of the Israeli air forces, including 400 on-duty pilots, published a letter, announcing the suspension of their service as an act of protest against the judicial reform.
Israeli military command and the prime minister have said on multiple occasions that the relinquishment of military duties by reservists undermines the country's security and affects the army itself. Netanyahu also said that in any democracy, the army follows orders from the elected government, not the other way around.
Since January 2023, Israel has been gripped by mass protests sparked by the judicial reform proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet. Last week, the Israeli parliament approved for second and third readings one of the key clauses of the judicial reform, which limits the power of the Supreme Court to overturn government decisions by declaring them unreasonable.
On Monday, the Israeli parliament approved the draft law on the concept of reasonableness within the framework of judicial reform. All opposition lawmakers boycotted the vote.
