Four Border Police officers were sentenced to two weeks in military prison for “harming religion and Judaism” by barbecuing on base during Shabbat, according to Hebrew media.

The punishment was reportedly shortened to one week following an uproar from parents of the detained officers and from politicians.

The officers, who serve as combat medics at a training base in the West Bank settlement of Beit Horon, will be released on Monday and return to their positions, Channel 12 reported Thursday.

According to Hebrew reports, a religious non-commissioned officer caught the four medics barbecuing on a Friday night some two weeks ago in an area of the base located far away from the barracks.

According to halacha, or Jewish ritual law, cooking and lighting a fire are forbidden on Shabbat, which starts on sundown on Friday and ends with nightfall on Saturday.

The medics put out the barbecue immediately after he confronted them, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

The NCO reported the medics to the base rabbi, and a senior officer ultimately sentenced them to three weeks in the Beit Lid military prison, which he cut down to two weeks the next day following an appeal, the Hebrew reports said.

During the trial, one of the medics expressed regret over the incident but said the punishment went overboard, adding that the four were unaware there was a rule forbidding barbecues on base during Shabbat, Haaretz reported.

Keren Peretz, the mother of one of the detained medics, told Kan: “Sending to prison is not proportional in any way. As far as I’m concerned, prison is for criminals, and they’re absolutely not in that category.”

At a small protest outside the Beit Lid prison on Wednesday, Pe’er Elazar, the father of one of the medics, addressed his daughter through a megaphone, saying that “all you did was barbecue,” but her superiors “committed a crime.”

“They’ll be punished in the end. We’ll make sure of it,” said Elazar.

MK Gilad Kariv of the left-leaning Democrats party, head of the Knesset’s informal religious liberties lobby, slammed the punishment, writing on X Wednesday that “Israel is not a halacha state, and a Border Police officer is not entitled to punish troops for ‘harming religion and Judaism’.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also wrote Thursday that the medics should be pardoned.

“Judaism is not something you force in the State of Israel through threats and arrests,” wrote Lapid. “Judaism is what connects us and makes us one nation.”

In a statement quoted by Haaretz, Border Police said the medics “acted contrary to directives and procedures, in the area of the base and in public.”

Are you relying on The Times of Israel for accurate and timely coverage of the Iran war right now? If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6/month, you will:

Support our independent journalists who are working around the clock under difficult conditions to cover this conflict;

Read ToI with a clear, ads-free experience on our site, apps and emails; and

Gain access to exclusive content shared only with the ToI Community, including weekly letters from founding editor David Horovitz.

We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.

You clearly find our careful reporting of the Iran war valuable, at a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.

Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically during this ongoing conflict.

So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you'll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.

Thank you,David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel

1 Hormuz traffic remains at a trickle as US blockade of Iranian ports appears to hold

2 Shekel breaks below 3 to the dollar in first since 1995; exporters warn of economy risk

3 Security cabinet said to consider one-week Lebanon ceasefire amid US pressure

4 US Senate foils effort to nix Israel arms sales, but record 85% of Democrats support the move

5 PM says Israel ready for Iran war resumption, while US gears for another round of talks

6 Why US funding for Israel’s Iron Dome is losing support on both sides of the aisle

7 Frenchman who killed woman in Tel Aviv hit-and-run in 2011 shot dead in Paris

8 Beirut said to balk as Trump pushes for 1st-ever call between leaders of Lebanon and Israel

© The Times of Israel