IDF Moves Female Combat Pilot Project Out of Armored Corps Amid Religious Backlash

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has decided to move the women-combatants integration pilot away from the Armored Corps and into the Border Defense Array, according to new details reported by ynet. The new framework will be fully separated by gender, with no men in the tank itself or in the company as a whole.

The decision comes after about one third of the hesder yeshivas, 25 schools in total, said they would stop sending recruits to the Armored Corps because of the original plan. Two weeks ago, 12 hesder yeshiva heads sent a dramatic letter saying they would no longer send students to the corps starting with the next enlistment cycle.

In their letter, they wrote, “We are pained by the weak response of the State of Israel and the IDF, which did not object to this move. The IDF is the army of the people of Israel, and the sanctity of the camp is the foundation of its spirit.” A few days later, 13 more heads joined the letter, including Rabbi Michael Aharonov of Maale Ephraim Yeshiva, Rabbi David Amitei of Avinoam Yeshiva, Rabbi Shlomo Benjamin of Lev Da’at Yeshiva, and others.

The rabbis argued that the High Court ruling means mixing combat units, which they said harms the sanctity of the camp and the army’s fighting ability. The letter also drew support from Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, head of the pre-army academy in Ali, who urged his students to prefer units such as Shaldag and Shayetet, where, he said, “they do not lower standards for the value of equality.” He also warned that “the danger to Israel’s security is great because the unit is the professional compass and a symbol for the entire army.”