Tel Aviv
CNN
 — 

In a sea of Israeli flags, Yiftach Golov holds one that appears slightly totally different.

Among the many lots of of 1000’s of protesters who took to the streets for the thirteenth week in a row on Saturday, Golov hoists a brown flag that represents a gaggle referred to as “Brother and Sisters in Arms.”

They’re veterans – many, like Golov, from elite forces – who now really feel they’re preventing on a brand new battlefield: To avoid wasting Israeli democracy.

“We imagine that is our duty to go as soon as once more referred to as to the flag of the nation to cease this insanity to defend Israel,” Golov mentioned, as he weaved his method by the protesters on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan avenue, between the high-rises that home lots of Israel’s excessive tech firms.

Throughout the second intifada, within the early 2000s, Golov served in a particular forces reconnaissance unit. He was by no means earlier than significantly political, focusing extra on getting his PhD in biophysics from Tel Aviv College.

However when the protest motion in opposition to the Israeli authorities’s judicial overhaul plan started in January, Golov attended one an indication and shortly turned one in every of 1000’s of veterans, and now navy reservists, who’ve taken up the trigger as their new mission.

Some, together with elite Air Power reservists, have taken it a step additional, threatening to not heed the decision to coach and even serve in protest of the federal government’s plans deliberate judicial modifications, which might give the governing events extra management over Israel’s judiciary.

Others have taken to changing into a number of the most lively organizers and demonstrators. Final week, a gaggle from Brothers and Sisters in Arms protested by carrying a determine wrapped within the Israeli flag on a stretcher, the best way they’d carry a wounded comrade off the sector.

Whereas Golov says he has not taken the drastic step to refuse service, he understands the motivation.

“We’re preventing for justice and liberty, identical to the American story, that’s the values that which are being represented symbolized again once we have a look at our flag, that’s one thing that was missing missing for the previous few many years. So mainly, we reclaim the flag,” he mentioned.

Fellow members of the group, all carrying brown shirts with the group’s brand, come up and say good day. They’re sprinkled all all through the protests. One is even main the “Pink Entrance,” a gaggle of coordinated drummers who appear to be they’re dressed for a rave, and sometimes lead the chants on the protests.

They’re utilizing abilities they realized within the navy – easy methods to manage, easy methods to mobilize – now for the protests. However extra importantly, they are saying they’ve the identical kind of motivation.

“The very deep feeling that you’re a part of one thing greater than your self, that (you’re) allowed to sacrifice something that’s wanted, whether or not it’s your profession, well being, severely psychological well being,” Golov mentioned. “All of us have a mission, you’re prepared to do it at any value. You’re very decided, you realize that you’re on the suitable aspect, you’re carrying the torch of sunshine. That retains us being extremely motivated even though we’re not sleeping for days.”

Israel’s protest motion is made up of many disparate teams, however the stress from Israel’s a lot vaunted veterans has been seen as a key to shifting the needle.

Final Monday, after weeks of sustained protests and the biggest normal strike in Israeli historical past, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a pause to the laws, to permit time for negotiations with the opposition.

However regardless of the bulletins, protesters are nonetheless out within the streets in giant numbers. CNN affiliate Channel 12 in Israel estimated the scale of Saturday’s demonstration in Tel Aviv at about 150,000 folks. Organizers claimed it was 230,000.

Final week’s mass protests and widespread strike motion got here after Netanyahu mentioned he had determined to fireplace Protection Minister Yoav Gallant for advocating a delay in passing the laws – a transfer that Netanyahu has since delayed, sources informed CNN, on account of “the current safety state of affairs.”

In his televised speech calling for a delay, Gallant had mentioned the pause within the laws was wanted “for the safety of Israel,” citing the refusal of some Israel Protection Forces reservists to coach in protest of the federal government plans. He mentioned urgent forward with the proposals might threaten Israel’s safety.

Beneath stress at house and from allies overseas, Netanyahu mentioned he would delay votes on the remaining laws till after the Knesset’s Passover recess in April “to offer time for an actual probability for an actual debate.”

“Out of the duty to the nation, I made a decision to delay … the vote, so as to give time for dialogue,” he added.

However Netanyahu indicated that the delay was solely non permanent. He insisted that the overhaul was obligatory, and reiterated criticism of refusal to coach or serve within the navy in protest on the deliberate modifications. “Refusing is the top of our nation,” he mentioned.

Many protesters don’t imagine that the pause is actual, or say it’s merely a stalling tactic to offer Netanyahu some respiratory room and get the protesters to go house earlier than he plows on with the reforms.

“We are going to begin doing deactivation solely once we will know 100% that Israel state will keep a practical democratic nation. No matter must be finished for that,” Golov mentioned.