Israeli military veterans, a backbone of protest movement, vow to keep demonstrating | CNN

Tel Aviv
CNN
 — 

In a sea of Israeli flags, Yiftach Golov holds one that appears a bit of totally different.

Among the many lots of of 1000’s of protesters who took to the streets for the thirteenth week in a row on Saturday, Golov hoists a brown flag that represents a bunch known as “Brother and Sisters in Arms.”

They’re veterans – many, like Golov, from elite forces – who now really feel they’re combating on a brand new battlefield: To avoid wasting Israeli democracy.

“We imagine that is our duty to go as soon as once more known as to the flag of the nation to cease this insanity to defend Israel,” Golov stated, as he weaved his method by the protesters on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan road, between the high-rises that home a lot of Israel’s excessive tech firms.

In the course of the second intifada, within the early 2000s, Golov served in a particular forces reconnaissance unit. He was by no means earlier than significantly political, focusing extra on getting his PhD in biophysics from Tel Aviv College.

However when the protest motion in opposition to the Israeli authorities’s judicial overhaul plan started in January, Golov attended one an indication and shortly turned one among 1000’s of veterans, and now army reservists, who’ve taken up the trigger as their new mission.

Some, together with elite Air Drive reservists, have taken it a step additional, threatening to not heed the decision to coach and even serve in protest of the federal government’s plans deliberate judicial modifications, which might give the governing events extra management over Israel’s judiciary.

Others have taken to changing into a number of the most energetic organizers and demonstrators. Final week, a bunch from Brothers and Sisters in Arms protested by carrying a determine wrapped within the Israeli flag on a stretcher, the best way they’d carry a wounded comrade off the sector.

Whereas Golov says he has not taken the drastic step to refuse service, he understands the motivation.

“We’re combating for justice and liberty, similar to the American story, that’s the values that which might be being represented symbolized again once we take a look at our flag, that’s one thing that was missing missing for the previous couple of many years. So mainly, we reclaim the flag,” he stated.

Fellow members of the group, all carrying brown shirts with the group’s emblem, come up and say good day. They’re sprinkled all all through the protests. One is even main the “Pink Entrance,” a bunch of coordinated drummers who appear to be they’re dressed for a rave, and sometimes lead the chants on the protests.

They’re utilizing abilities they discovered within the army – methods to set up, methods to mobilize – now for the protests. However extra importantly, they are saying they’ve the identical sort of motivation.

“The very deep feeling that you’re a part of one thing larger than your self, that (you’re) allowed to sacrifice something that’s wanted, whether or not it’s your profession, well being, critically psychological well being,” Golov stated. “All of us have a mission, you’re prepared to do it at any price. You’re very decided, you already know that you’re on the fitting aspect, you’re carrying the torch of sunshine. That retains us being extremely motivated even though we’re not sleeping for days.”

Israel’s protest motion is made up of many disparate teams, however the strain from Israel’s a lot vaunted veterans has been seen as a key to shifting the needle.

Final Monday, after weeks of sustained protests and the biggest common strike in Israeli historical past, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a pause to the laws, to permit time for negotiations with the opposition.

However regardless of the bulletins, protesters are nonetheless out within the streets in massive numbers. CNN affiliate Channel 12 in Israel estimated the scale of Saturday’s demonstration in Tel Aviv at about 150,000 individuals. Organizers claimed it was 230,000.

Final week’s mass protests and widespread strike motion got here after Netanyahu stated he had determined to fireplace Protection Minister Yoav Gallant for advocating a delay in passing the laws – a transfer that Netanyahu has since delayed, sources informed CNN, as a consequence of “the current safety scenario.”

In his televised speech calling for a delay, Gallant had stated the pause within the laws was wanted “for the safety of Israel,” citing the refusal of some Israel Protection Forces reservists to coach in protest of the federal government plans. He stated urgent forward with the proposals may threaten Israel’s safety.

Underneath strain at residence and from allies overseas, Netanyahu stated he would delay votes on the remaining laws till after the Knesset’s Passover recess in April “to provide time for an actual probability for an actual debate.”

“Out of the duty to the nation, I made a decision to delay … the vote, with a purpose to give time for dialogue,” he added.

However Netanyahu indicated that the delay was solely non permanent. He insisted that the overhaul was vital, and reiterated criticism of refusal to coach or serve within the army in protest on the deliberate modifications. “Refusing is the top of our nation,” he stated.

Many protesters don’t imagine that the pause is actual, or say it’s merely a stalling tactic to provide Netanyahu some respiration room and get the protesters to go residence earlier than he plows on with the reforms.

“We are going to begin doing deactivation solely once we will know 100% that Israel state will keep a useful democratic nation. No matter must be performed for that,” Golov stated.