Torat Lechima Organization: 'Time to make systemic change'

The Torat Lechima Organization responded to the report of the Commissioner of Soldiers' Complaints on the subject of beards in the IDF.

"There is no justification in the IDF, as a state-run Jewish army, to deprive soldiers of growing a beard. It has never been proven that a beard violates military discipline. Even in European armies such as Portugal, Germany, and Italy, soldiers are allowed to grow a beard. In Israel, too, men fighting in Border Police forces grow a trim beard without interrupting or undermining discipline. There is no reason for an advanced Jewish army like the IDF to have a meaningless order that consumes time resources and harms commanders, soldiers, and the command relationship between them.

"The issue of beards has been recurring in all the Commissioner of Soldiers' Complaints reports in recent years, it is time to make a systemic change of perspective and not charitable spot treatment. We call on Chief of Staff Kochavi to re-examine the matter and allow every soldier, religious, traditional, secular, and non-Jewish, to grow a tidy beard without discrimination or invasive queries about personal values," it was reported.