IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir is moving ahead with a pilot to integrate women into the Armored Corps, despite strong resistance from dozens of religious Zionist rabbis. According to the report, Zamir instructed the pilot to begin with the November draft and did not promise that women and men would remain separate in tanks during wartime.
The article says the key point from a decisive planning meeting held yesterday was Zamir’s statement that, in combat, “adjustments will be required according to the order for shared service.” While the IDF had previously tried to calm the controversy by saying men and women would not serve together in the same company, and that the High Court of Justice had only ordered a pilot program, the current position appears to go further. The report says women will be integrated into the combat structure, and in war the separation could disappear.
The backlash comes as 36 hesder yeshiva heads have signed a letter opposing service in the Armored Corps. Ten more leaders recently joined the protest, including Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira and Rabbi Ben Zion Elgazi, heads of the Ramat Gan hesder yeshiva. The rabbis say Armored Corps service is forbidden under Jewish law and have announced they will no longer send their students to the corps starting with the next enlistment cycle.
Among the signatories are Rabbis Michael Aharon, Elisha Yinnon, Shlomo Sasson, David Amitai, Eyal Yaakovovich, Yehoshua Schmidt, Shlomo Binyamin, Eliyahu Mali, David Turgeman, Eran Tamir, and Avihu Fishpeder. The report says the army appears to have chosen a side in a direct confrontation with the religious Zionist world, prioritizing gender integration over longstanding understandings with the sector.
