Regional Cooperation Minister David David (Dudi) Amsalem reportedly no longer serves in the IDF reserves following alleged lies that the politician made, according to an N12 report.
IDF Major-General Eyal Peled told N12 that "The only reason I'm appearing here today is to say once and for all - yes, [Amsalem] was kicked out and I'm the one who kicked him out, I'm not ashamed to say that too. I'm the one who did the formal procedure, and I hope this is the last time we'll have to deal with it."
Gadi Neuman, a soldier in an IDF company unit, stated that he received a call from Amsalem, who complained about why he was fired, to which Neuman told him "We fired you because you lied, because you fired people to lie for you." The report cites Neuman saying that he served with Amsalem in Jenin in 1995, and arrived at the conclusion that a jeep that the Likud minister was driving got stuck in a Palestinian village without a proper driver's license.
"The only reason I'm appearing here today is to say once and for all - yes, [Amsalem] was kicked out and I'm the one who kicked him out, I'm not ashamed to say that too. I'm the one who did the formal procedure, and I hope this is the last time we'll have to deal with it."
Eyal Peled
It was initially thought that another soldier had driven the jeep, the report said, but Neuman eventually discovered that it was Amsalem driving upon interrogating other soldiers involved in the incident and exposing the lie.
What did Amsalem say about other IDF reservists?
Before the N12 report, Amsalem stated on Tuesday that IDF reservists choosing not to show up for their service in protest over the government's judicial reform should be jailed for life.
The Likud MK also stated that there “is a rebellion in the army and they need to be dealt with like rebels are dealt with in militaries.
“What they are saying here is, if you do not stop the legislation, we will break apart the army, Amsalem also said regarding reservist judicial reform protesters. "And it doesn’t matter what will happen on the northern border or with Iran.”
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.