Prime Minister Netanyahu Orders Military Chief To Take Firm Action Against Members Of The Protesting Armed Forces

PM Benjamin Netanyahu. (Wikimedia Commons/US Department of State)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the military chief of staff on Sunday to quell protests by members of the armed forces against his government's plans to overhaul the judicial system.

"I expect military chiefs of staff and heads of the security department to aggressively fight against refusal to serve," he told the Cabinet, quoted by The National News March 19.

"There is no place for refusal to serve in public discourse. A country that wants to exist cannot tolerate such a phenomenon and we will also not tolerate it," he stressed.

PM Netanyahu, who has rejected the compromise plan proposed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to defuse the crisis, did not mention any agreement with his opponents, according to an AP report.

He said he would not accept "aniarchies," and mentioned several demands for his security chiefs to "clean up" road closures by protesters, address incitement against him and his ministers, as well as refusal to serve in the armed forces by an increasing number of reserve soldiers.

Separately, the Chief of Military Staff, Lieutenant General Herzl Halevi, has reportedly told PM Netanyahu the protests of the reserve soldiers were at risk of damaging military capabilities.

He had promised to make sure it didn't happen, keeping the military out of public debate.

Israel is known to be experiencing a major crisis that has pushed tens of thousands of people to the streets to protest every week over the past two months.

Meanwhile, a group of Israelis who described themselves as reserve soldiers in elite military and intelligence units said they would not be present to carry out their duties from Sunday.

In a letter circulated to Israeli media, 450 protesters who described themselves as volunteer reserves from military special forces and another 200 as a volunteer reserve of offensive cyber operators, including from Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence agencies, said they were now rejecting calls, Reuters reported.

Most Israelis are serving in the military between two and three years. Some people continued as reserve soldiers to middle age. While reserve soldiers have helped Israel win the previous war, Israel recently relied on regular forces.

The split over PM Netanyahu's plan to change the legal system does not save the country's military, the most trusted institution, in which many soldiers have promised not to appear to serve under what they see as a change of the coming regime.

PM Netanyahu called this judicial reshuffle a balance restoration between government branches.

Critics have seen the Prime Minister's move, which is being tried on charges of corruption he denies, to bring the court to the executive.

On Sunday, a Knesset review committee was scheduled to discuss, before the final voting session at the plenary session, a bill that would give the coalition more broad control over the appointment of lawmakers.