Their mobilization is exceptional. This Wednesday, March 8, dozens of Israeli Air Force reservists will not report for a day of training normally required to remain operational. Instead, they will protest against the justice reform carried out for several weeks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While the ultra-conservative leader’s bill is widely contested in Israeli society and has already pushed thousands into the streets, the mobilization of air force reservists is a shock in a country whose the army is supposed to be an apolitical melting pot.
With a relatively small contingent, the Israeli Air Force has traditionally relied on wartime reservists and requires aircrews who have been demobilized (those who have retired from operations for example) to train regularly in order to stay ready. But in a letter to local media on Sunday, 37 pilots and navigators from an F-15 squadron said they would not be present during exercises scheduled for Wednesday and would “dedicate [leur] time for dialogue and reflection in the name of democracy and national unity”. These reservists are part of the most elite formations of the Israeli army, such as the 69th Squadron, whose F-15s bombed the reactor Syrian nuclear weapons in 2007, or the Shaldag special forces unit of the air force, reports The Times of Israel. Nevertheless, the Israeli Air Force will not be grounded by these protests. In the event of a military emergency, most strikers make it clear that they will return to their posts.
“A threat to Israel’s security”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi met with reservists and senior officers this week to try to prevent a mass movement that could harm the army’s combat readiness. In response, Israel Defense Forces Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevy said he was “aware of the move, but will not allow any harm to the IDF’s ability to carry out its most important mission: to defend the security of Israel”. All the more so in the current context where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been on the rise since the beginning of the year. The clashes on both sides claimed the lives of 71 Palestinians (including combatants and civilians, including minors) and 13 Israelis, according to a tally by Agence France Presse.
After the cybertechnology units and the commandos, the pilots are the third corps of the army to be indignant against this reform. Meanwhile, for the ninth consecutive week, several hundred thousand Israelis took to the streets across the country Saturday night to protest the reform. Many mobilizations are still expected this Wednesday.
“I refuse to serve a dictatorship”
In a column published by the national left-wing daily Ha’aretz, a reservist, signing under the name of “Major R” tries to explain the protest approach of part of the troops. “For 13 years, I held various key positions in the military intelligence special operations force, one of Israel’s most sensitive and secretive divisions,” he said. “If Israel became a dictatorship, if justice became the armed arm of the government, we would no longer volunteer for reserve service,” he adds. A few weeks ago, some 300 officers and veterans gathered their signatures in a petition to challenge the justice reform. “The legislation in question will destroy everything we have served and fought for. We will not let that happen,” says the petition, which “Major R” claims to have initialed.
The pilots’ protest movement also nearly got the better of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s diplomatic trip to Italy on March 9. The anecdote is told by many Hebrew media, including The Times of Israel. Usually, the head of the Israeli government travels in a specially equipped Boeing 777. For lack of a qualified pilot capable of maneuvering the machine, the Prime Minister will have to settle for a Boeing 737, visibly smaller, less comfortable and less standardized than the new one. This makes you smile, but all the same underlines the magnitude of the situation.