Protesters gathered outside Prison 10 on Wednesday after four Border Police soldiers were sentenced to military prison over a barbecue they lit at the Beit Horon base the previous weekend.
The troops were disciplined after the incident ignited public debate over proportionality, military discipline, and allegations of religious coercion.
According to relatives, the incident took place on Friday, just after Passover, when the base was largely empty, and the soldiers felt they had not been given enough food. A duty officer who noticed the barbecue ordered them to extinguish it and later filed a complaint.
The four were initially sentenced to 21 days in military prison, before the punishment was reduced on appeal to 14 days. The father of one of the soldiers, a combat medic with no prior disciplinary record, sharply criticized the decision.
“My daughter feels she was treated like she was nothing,” he said. “Even if there was a breach of orders, where is the proportionality? There is a wide range of punishments, from a reprimand to confinement to base, but to send someone to prison over a barbecue?”
Families accuse commanders of religious overreach
The original ruling reportedly stated that the act constituted “harm to religion and Judaism,” language that further angered the families. They argued that the case reflected religious coercion presented as a disciplinary matter rather than a straightforward breach of military procedure.
“It looks like religious indoctrination,” the soldier's father said. “The officer who judged them chose a tone that had nothing to do with military discipline, but rather with religious values.”
Public criticism prompted the “Mothers on the Front” movement to join the families’ campaign. Members of the group were expected to demonstrate later in the day outside the military detention facility, demanding the soldiers’ release and the cancellation of the disciplinary record.
Israel Police said in response that the four soldiers violated base instructions and procedures and did so publicly during the holiday period. Police stressed that the soldiers were tried and sentenced to military imprisonment like any other compulsory-service police personnel, and rejected claims of inappropriate detention conditions or damage to the serving members’ reputations.
In a later statement, police said the sentence had been further reduced. The four soldiers were to be released on Monday after completing seven days in a military prison, and would then return to duty.
Israel Police and Border Police said discipline and adherence to procedures remain core principles of the organization. The updated decision means the four will serve one week rather than the original 21-day sentence.