Police on Saturday detained three former Yom Kippur War soldiers accused of stealing a decommissioned armored personnel carrier to use in a protest against pressure on the government to oust the judiciary.
The protesters claimed they had a permit to borrow a British-made brain carrier from a museum near Kibbutz Gesher in northern Israel – known as the Old Gesher – but police said they did not have a valid permit.
The protesters presented a letter from a nearby mine owned by Gesher, saying they could use the APCs to protest. According to Hebrew media reports, members of the kibbutz asked to return the vehicle after all three were taken into custody for questioning.
A large banner with a copy of the Declaration of Independence was tied to the APC. Beneath it is a banner in English: “Defending Israel’s Declaration of Independence.”
The incident happened on Thursday after the same group of protesters stole a decommissioned shot tankFrom the Tel Saki memorial site in the Golan Heights, the Israeli term for a British-built centurion commemorating a famous battle during the Yom Kippur War.
The word “democracy” was spray-painted in Hebrew on the tank.
A shot tank taken from the Tel Saki memorial site in the Golan Heights by veterans of the 1973 Yom Kippur War to protest the government’s planned judicial overhaul, February 16, 2023. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
Police said officers tracked the tank to Kibbutz Gadot – about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from Tel Saki – after receiving a report of the theft. The two suspects – who had served in the Armored Corps during the 1973 conflict – were questioned, and the tank was returned later in the day.
Last week, several thousand military reservists and IDF veterans mobilized At the culmination of a three-day march from Latrun outside the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem – a memorial site for fallen soldiers of Israel’s Armored Corps – to protest the government’s planned radical changes to the judicial system.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has prioritized the proposals. Critics say that, along with the other planned laws, they would deeply undermine Israel’s democratic character, dismantle its system of checks and balances, give almost all power to the executive branch and leave individual rights vulnerable and minorities vulnerable. Will leave unrestricted.
The plan has drawn sharp criticism and warnings from leading financial and legal experts as well as weekly protests and public petitions by various authorities, professionals and private companies.
Netanyahu has resisted the criticism, saying that the proposals would strengthen rather than weaken democracy, and that his government was fulfilling the will of the people.
Members of Netanyahu’s coalition have also vowed to pass other controversial bills, some of which relate to the military.
