IDF suspends reservists arrested at protests, prompting bias speculation

The IDF suspended several reservists from their reserves service after they were arrested at protests, raising concerns of political bias within the IDF, according to the Legal Aid for Protesters organization.

The organization, which provides legal services to protesters at no charge, said in a letter to IDF Chief Military Advocate Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi that this is selective enforcement and therefore raises the concerns of political bias.

“We have discovered that there are many reservists against whom criminal cases have been opened under criminal circumstances that are not related to protests and they have not been automatically released by the IDF,” read the letter, which was sent by organization lawyers Yoni Nussbaum and Gonen Ben Itzhak on Wednesday.

The organization called on Tomer-Yerushalmi to “intervene in these cases where there is “no real basis for a criminal offense that necessitates distancing the reservist from his duty for so long. They also asked her to “consider the legality and legal justification for the decisions [to suspend the reservists], particularly to make sure they are in line with constitutional principles and the necessary balance between maintaining the public order and individual rights.”

The lawyers raised a number of questions in the letter, asking for clarification as to who has the authority to make the decision to suspend soldiers and on what IDF order this is based. They also asked if reservists are allowed to present their side of the events before the decision is made to freeze their service.

The letter highlighted additional problems with the suspensions, saying that charges against individuals could remain “until their cases are closed and even beyond,” which they said may well take at least a year.

They also highlighted the fact that in cases where a number of people are arrested in one event (such as a protest) all charges against everyone in the group may appear in the files of all those arrested.

Number of arrests is over 1000

Since the start of 2023, around 1600 protesters have been arrested, and indictments have been issued against only seven of them, leading to speculation that police are using arrests as a tool to deter protesters, and that those arrested are not actually guilty of criminal wrongdoing.

The decision to freeze the service of the protesters comes at a time when Israel’s security officials have expressed that Israel needs more soldiers. According to a number of reports, Gallant said at a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week that the IDF lacked 10,000 soldiers.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said that the temporary suspension of reserve soldiers who have been arrested is a general rule, but the suspension can expire before the end of legal proceedings.

"A reservist who is arrested, is temporarily suspended from reserve service until the end of the proceedings in his case, or until a decision is made in his case by an authorized body to return him to reserve service," said the unit.

"A reservist who has been temporarily suspended from reserve service and the procedures in his case have not yet been completed can contact the officials of the reserve branch in the personnel department with a request to examine his case." 

Eliav Breuer and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.