Katz orders Democrats party candidate ousted from IDF reserves over call to refuse service

Stav Levaton is a military reporter for The Times of Israel

Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF on Sunday to remove an anti-government activist, who is a member of the Brothers in Arms movement and of Yair Golan’s The Democrats party, from any army reserve duty after he appeared to encourage refusal to serve on political grounds.

Omri Ronen, an Israel Defense Forces officer in the elite Maglan unit who has served more than 350 days of reserve duty since October 7, 2023, told Channel 12 news on Saturday that Israelis should “do everything to prevent a coup d’état… including refusing to report” for military service.

Ronen’s grandmother, Nira Ronen, 86, was murdered by terrorists who stormed into Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023.

A statement issued by the Defense Ministry said Katz views such remarks by active reservists “with great severity,” and reiterates his policy that there is “no place in the reserve forces” for anyone who explicitly or implicitly calls for refusal to serve or incites against military service.

Katz declared “zero tolerance” for refusal to serve, saying he has instructed IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to ensure Ronen is removed “from any framework of service in the IDF.”

“I will not allow the scourge of refusal to return to the ranks of the IDF – for any reason,” Katz said, adding that the same policy will apply in any similar future case and insisting that the military “must remain outside political disputes and only serve Israel’s security.”

The Democrats MK Naama Lazimi criticized Katz, writing on X that those who “legislate laws for draft dodging, harm the army, foment a coup d’état and are destroying Israel from within will not preach morality to us.”

Lazimi was referring to a law passed last week by the Knesset that suspended the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers, as demanded by ultra-Orthodox coalition members who oppose their community members serving in the military as is compulsory for most Jewish Israelis. Critics accuse the law of effectively legitimizing ongoing mass non-enlistment in the ultra-Orthodox community at a time when the IDF has repeatedly said it needs thousands more soldiers and reservists have been forced to spend long months in service to maintain manpower.

Katz has previously banned other reservists from serving over political remarks, including Democrats leader Golan. Last year, Katz banned Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, from reserve duty, from wearing a military uniform and from entering army bases, following the left-wing politician’s statement that Israel’s government was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.” Amid outcry from both the left and the right at the time, Golan refused to walk back his statement, saying at a press conference that he had not criticized the military or troops, but rather the hard-right government directing its actions in the Gaza war at the time.

In December 2024, Katz banned Eyal Naveh, a former member of the Sayeret Matkal commando unit and a leader of the Brothers in Arms movement, who had called for reservists not to show up for their military duty in 2023 as the government advanced its controversial judicial overhaul.

In the months leading up to the multifront war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack, leaders of Brothers in Arms announced that some 10,000 reservists would suspend their volunteer reserve duty in protest of the government’s plans at the time to overhaul the judicial system.

Despite the threat, the IDF experienced an unprecedented 120% turnout rate for reservists on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel that triggered a war in the Gaza Strip.

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— Stav Levaton, military reporter

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