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An F-16C fighter aircraft of the Israeli Air Force (IAF)

Photo: Björn Trotsky / IMAGO

More than 1000,<> members of the Israeli Air Force have announced that they will suspend their reserve service if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government continues its plans for a major overhaul of the country's judiciary. This is reported by the Israeli newspaper »Haaretz«. Among them are hundreds of pilots.

"The legislation that allows the government to act in an extremely unreasonable manner will affect the security of the State of Israel, break trust and violate our consent to continue to risk our lives – and will unfortunately leave us no choice but to stop volunteering for reserve service," reads a letter from 1142 reserve officers, which is circulating on Twitter. The signatories sent it to members of the Knesset and the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli Air Force would no longer be operational if the pilots made good on their threat. The organisers have recently collected the signatures and made sure that the signatories actually hold the functions they have indicated.

The reservists called on Knesset members to "reach comprehensive agreements" and "increase confidence" in the judiciary for all. They emphasized that "laws concerning the Jewish or democratic character of the State of Israel must be carried out through dialogue and with a broad public consensus."

In Israel, the dispute over the government's reform plans has recently come to a head. A law to be passed as part of the reform in the coming days will "strengthen democracy," Netanyahu said in a speech on Thursday evening. Critics, on the other hand, see democracy in danger because of the planned weakening of the judiciary. "All these statements about the destruction of democracy are simply absurd," the head of government said.

According to the media, the law could come into force as early as next Monday or Tuesday. It would then no longer be possible for the Supreme Court to judge decisions of the government or individual ministers as "inappropriate". At the beginning of the year, Netanyahu had to dismiss his interior minister because the judges had deemed the appointment "inappropriate" because of his criminal past. Observers expect that the coalition wants to reverse this with the new law. Critics also feared that there could be arbitrary dismissals of opponents of government policy in key positions.

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