Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant urged an immediate and temporary halt to the far-right government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial plan to overhaul the judiciary.
Citing the need for dialogue with the opposition, Gallant asked Netanyahu’s coalition to wait until after the Jewish Passover holiday that begins on April 5 before pushing ahead with its divisive plan to overhaul the judiciary.
He said he worries that the overhaul plans threaten the country’s security. The project has sparked the most significant protest movement in Israel’s history, bringing thousands to face off against police in the streets weekly.
“I will not take part in this,” Gallant said, although he did not elaborate on what would happen if the government pressed on. His statement indicated the first crack in Netanyahu’s coalition, the most right-wing government in Israeli history.
In recent weeks, discontent over the overhaul has even surged from within the Israeli army – what Israelis consider the country’s most respected and unifying institution. In the past weeks, many Israeli reservists have threatened to withdraw from voluntary duty, posing a broad challenge to Netanyahu as he plows ahead with the reform while on trial for corruption.
“The events taking place in Israeli society do not spare the Israel Defense Forces – from all sides, feelings of anger, pain, and disappointment arise, with an intensity I have never encountered before,” Gallant said in a televised address on Saturday after the end of the Jewish Sabbath. “I see how the source of our strength is being eroded.”
Gallant said that the national crisis over the judicial overhaul has created a “clear, immediate, and tangible danger to the state’s security.”
