Military Doctors to Israeli Defense Minister: "We Will Not Serve a Dictatorship"

About 300 Israeli military doctors in reserve units have informed Defense Minister Yoav Galant in a message that they will refuse to serve if the government proceeds with judicial amendments, claiming that the government is "violating the fundamental contract between us and the state." The message stated, "If there are no checks and no effective judicial review, we will not be able to trust our leaders when we are sent on military missions. We will not serve a dictatorship." The reservists mentioned that they continued to fulfill their duties because they were giving time for discussions to yield results, but they reiterated their calls to reject summonses when the talks collapsed. Israeli lawmakers began discussion yesterday on a bill that would limit the powers of the Supreme Court, a move that signifies the resumption of attempts to enact amendments to the judiciary laws proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Lawmakers from parties within the ruling coalition indicated that "the new bill will be a much lighter version of previous proposals that aimed to nearly completely restrict the Supreme Court’s authority to issue rulings against the executive." However, the opposition claims that "the new bill still represents a gateway to corruption."