Nahal soldier A. on Sunday evening entered military prison for a 30-day sentence after he wore a "Moshiach" patch on his uniform.
A. was supposed to begin his sentence on Sunday morning, but the controversy around his sentence prompted the IDF to change the schedule.
A.'s parents said Saturday night said, "We are digesting this, but we are in absolute shock!! We will not be silent in the face of this injustice."
Soldiers in the company are furious, and stressed, "They lowered morale for all of us."
A member of soldier A.’s platoon, who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with him in Lebanon and is currently on operational activity in Samaria, broke his silence in a painful post: “For you, this is the patch controversy; for us, this is [about] our best friend. He was the heart of this family. To take a soldier who did everything for the country, and suddenly put him in prison for 30 days and remove him from combat service? It is inhuman. It crushes him and us, and since this happened, the entire company has been extinguished. The State is simply erasing everything for him in an instant."
The case has severely harmed the morale of the company, which holds the highest operational achievements in the recent fighting in Lebanon.
Following the decision to put the soldier behind bars on Sunday, the soldiers’ parents stated: “We understand discipline, but patches exist throughout the army, in regular service and in the reserves. Why place an entire phenomenon on the shoulders of one innocent soldier who did what half the army does openly? There is outrageous discrimination here on the part of the senior command. The Chief of Staff leaves in their positions, without any punishment, figures who actively worked to dismantle the army from within, while against specifically a combat soldier they use the most crushing punishment. We will not remain silent about this."
In light of the latest developments and the disregard by the senior command, the parents of the company’s soldiers decided to launch a public struggle, promising, “The struggle will not stop until justice is achieved, the name of the soldier and the entire company is cleared, and Jewish-Zionist pride and strength are restored to the fighters on the front line. At this time, the people of Israel need their heroes standing tall and proud of their identity, not under persecution and silencing."