After approximately 100 days of reserve duty in the Golan Heights, soldiers from Battalion 7016 of the 4th Armored Brigade began a discharge period of several days marking the conclusion of an extended period of service. As part of the planned events, the battalion stayed at a kosher hotel in Tverya on September 22-23.
For some of the soldiers, however, the hotel stay raised a question they had not expected to encounter in a military setting: whether the food being served met the kosher standards followed by the IDF. According to soldiers in the battalion, when they approached the battalion rabbi to clarify the matter, they were told that the hotel's level of kosher supervision did not meet the standards customary within the IDF Rabbinate.
Following complaints from the soldiers, an additional inquiry was conducted. According to battalion officials, the battalion rabbi raised the issue with senior kosher supervision officials. They were reportedly told that the kosher certification at hotels with which the IDF works under such arrangements is considered kosher, but does not necessarily meet the level required by the IDF Rabbinate. The information surprised the soldiers, who considered such a discharge period to be entirely within IDF regulations and part of their service. "If the army has a certain kosher standard intended to allow all soldiers to eat together, it is not clear why, as soon as we go to a hotel under the same assignment, that standard changes," one declared.