The new policy instituted by the IDF of integrating women into combat units - where religious obligations of modesty between the sexes would be impossible to maintain - has drawn strong reaction from the religious world. Rabbis of the hesder yeshivas (which combine Torah study with army service) and religious IDF preparatory academies have criticized the decision, saying that it divides the army and places impossible obstacles before religious soldiers.
Following an emergency meeting yesterday, Rabbis of hesder yeshivas and religious soldiers held a demonstration across from the Kirya, the army’s administrative offices, in Tel Aviv. In a counter protest, left-wing activists from the Meretz and Shinui parties chanted through megaphones, “We want equality!”
At the demonstration, a leading Rabbi of the national-religious community, Rabbi Yaakov Medan, explained the Rabbinical opposition: “It is the right of the religious soldier to serve and maintain his observance of the halacha (Jewish law). A religious soldier cannot serve in the small cramped quarters of a piece of mobile artillery with a young female soldier... What was done now [forcing soldiers to break religious obligations of modesty] is [even] more serious than eating non-kosher food. If the army ordered us to eat non-kosher food…we wouldn\'t do that either.”
Naor Shimrai, youth leader of the Shinui Party, who supports the new policy, expressed his fear that “the principle of equality, which Israeli society is supposed to be based on, is in danger, and we came to protest that fact… I don\'t think that a female soldier bothers a male soldier, unless he wants to be bothered.”
Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev (NRP) suspects that there is an ulterior motive behind the new policy. He has accused Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz of consistently attempting to drive the religious Zionists out of the IDF. He sees a pattern behind the refusal to promote religious soldiers such as Effi Eitam and Yair Naveh to the rank of major-general and the current insistence on integrating women into combat units, without so much as meeting with Rabbis and the heads of hesder yeshivas to discuss the matter. Orlev called for the immediate intervention of the Prime Minister in hopes of preventing another schism in society.
Following an emergency meeting yesterday, Rabbis of hesder yeshivas and religious soldiers held a demonstration across from the Kirya, the army’s administrative offices, in Tel Aviv. In a counter protest, left-wing activists from the Meretz and Shinui parties chanted through megaphones, “We want equality!”
At the demonstration, a leading Rabbi of the national-religious community, Rabbi Yaakov Medan, explained the Rabbinical opposition: “It is the right of the religious soldier to serve and maintain his observance of the halacha (Jewish law). A religious soldier cannot serve in the small cramped quarters of a piece of mobile artillery with a young female soldier... What was done now [forcing soldiers to break religious obligations of modesty] is [even] more serious than eating non-kosher food. If the army ordered us to eat non-kosher food…we wouldn\'t do that either.”
Naor Shimrai, youth leader of the Shinui Party, who supports the new policy, expressed his fear that “the principle of equality, which Israeli society is supposed to be based on, is in danger, and we came to protest that fact… I don\'t think that a female soldier bothers a male soldier, unless he wants to be bothered.”
Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev (NRP) suspects that there is an ulterior motive behind the new policy. He has accused Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz of consistently attempting to drive the religious Zionists out of the IDF. He sees a pattern behind the refusal to promote religious soldiers such as Effi Eitam and Yair Naveh to the rank of major-general and the current insistence on integrating women into combat units, without so much as meeting with Rabbis and the heads of hesder yeshivas to discuss the matter. Orlev called for the immediate intervention of the Prime Minister in hopes of preventing another schism in society.