Israeli army punishes reserve doctors demanding return of captives

The Israeli army is taking punitive measures against reserve doctors who signed a petition demanding the return of Israeli captives even if it requires ending the war on Gaza, according to the petition’s organisers in a statement issued on Wednesday. They explained that officers from the army’s main medical unit headquarters contacted doctors who signed the petition while serving in the reserves and asked them to “withdraw their signatures”. They noted that one of the signatories was dismissed from her position in an air force medical unit and removed from a flight course.

“The Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir of the Israel Defence Forces [IDF] instructed the military’s chief medical officer, Brig. Gen. Zivan Aviad-Bar, to personally inform the reservist doctors that politics has no place in the army and to request that they remove their names from the letter,” said the petition organisers. The doctors were also informed that they would receive a personal summons for an “explanatory session” at the unit’s headquarters.

According to the statement, the number of signatories of the petition has increased by around 100 doctors since its publication. It was published last Sunday signed by almost 150 Israeli army reserve doctors, as part of a growing wave of protest within the reserve forces and wider community.

This development comes in the wake of a major campaign of protests within the army, which began last week after a similar petition was signed by former and active Israeli air force reserve personnel demanding the immediate return of the captives, even at the cost of ending the war.

In response to the petition, the air force Commander Tomer Bar and Chief of Staff Zamir decided to dismiss all active reserve soldiers who signed the petition from their reserve service.

Similar petitions have been circulating in recent days by former members of the naval commando unit (Shayetet 13), offensive cyber units, the special operations unit, Unit 8200, the armoured corps, graduates of the Talpiot programme, and other special units. A statement signed by approximately 3,000 health sector workers, including Nobel Prize-winning doctors, was also published calling for an end to the war in order to return the captives. Similar statements have been issued by academics, teachers, writers and architects.

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