The “Brothers in Arms” group of IDF reservists who demonstrated in recent weeks against the judicial reform, on Tuesday announced that they are suspending the protest following the statement of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Monday night that he is suspending the legislation to give an opportunity for negotiations.
Brothers in Arms, estimated at several hundred IDF reservist soldiers and officers, published a letter signed by its members declaring they won’t serve in the reserves if the judicial reform is passed.
The group posted a lengthy message on its Facebook page, stating: “We – like the majority of the nation – do not trust words, do not trust that there’s a real intention to reach a broad agreement. We only believe in actions. At the same time, as principled reserve volunteers who led the country every time the country called us, and after deep thinking and feeling a responsibility for the unity of the nation, out of a desire to align with the protest organizations with an emphasis on the Histadrut and the heads of the economy – we decided to give the negotiation process a chance.”
Referring to the coalition’s submitting the finished bill to the Knesset after PM Netanyahu’s speech, the reservists noted: “We repeat and emphasize – we are ready and organized to renew the protest in a short time. Brothers in Arms – the reservists’ protest – will resume the active protest actions with full force and immediately, if it turns out that the time allowed for talks is being cynically used to further damage democracy.”
They added: “Some of you will not agree with the respite we are willing to grant, but as we have said in all the months that have passed, we will turn over every stone and find every opportunity to find broad agreement because we have only one nation and one country.”
The spokeswoman of the Constitution Committee on Tuesday clarified regarding the bill’s submission to the plenum: “The Basic Law: The Judiciary Bill that was approved yesterday by the Constitution Committee, completed the drafting process and was transferred to the Knesset Plenum for consideration at 6:15 PM yesterday. The date of the announcement of the submission in the plenary is at the discretion of the Knesset Secretariat.”
She further explained that this is a normal procedure, within the framework of which from the moment the bill is approved by a committee, it is transferred to be drafted and from there to printing and then to the Knesset secretariat for the purpose of announcing its submission in the plenum.
