Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant threatened Tel Aviv’s far-right coalition government with his resignation in the event that it proceeds with its judicial overhaul, according to local reports on 20 March.

This comes during a period when several branches of the Israeli military are partaking in nationwide protests against the government’s judicial reforms, which started three months prior. Gallant claims that widespread “insubordination” could potentially hinder the Israeli military’s capacity to carry out operations.

According to Hebrew media, Netanyahu was notified of Gallant’s views on the controversial reforms and privately shared his rhetoric with the members of his cabinet. As a result, members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party are reportedly arranging to “soften” the upcoming reforms.

Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul will essentially grant Israel’s coalition government the authority to limit the power of the national judiciary, given the its judges will be specifically hand-picked by the government, most of whom are politically aligned with the Likud party and its allies.

Experts agree that the reforms could enable the Knesset to annul corruption charges against Netanyahu. The Israeli premier is being sued for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.

A few days prior, elite reservists from the Israeli military intelligence’s special operations division also threatened their government that they would halt their volunteer service in protest to the government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary.

Officials of the division disclosed that 450 reservists in special operations and 200 involved cyber warfare divisions are on board with the protests.

In the wake of the Israeli government’s recent decisions, there has been a drastic increase in Israelis seeking to obtain foreign passports. Several Israeli companies have also started to move their money abroad, amounting to billions of dollars.

Several opposition members of the Knesset, such as former Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid, have also questioned the actions of the new Israeli government since its victory in the 1 November elections and warned that Netanyahu’s coalition government will threaten Israeli ‘democracy.’