Two hundred and fifty-seven female IDF officers sent a letter on Wednesday to the chief of staff, the defense minister and the director general of the Defense Ministry, urging them to halt what they describe as an anti-women campaign against female soldiers and combat troops. The signatories include six brigadier generals, seven colonels and 28 lieutenant colonels.
The officers warned that outside pressure is harming national security by interfering with military operational decisions. They wrote that yielding to such pressure is “security negligence” and a “dismantling of the people’s army from within,” and called for an immediate rejection of rabbis’ letters and the exclusion of women from the military. “Stop the madness immediately,” they wrote.
They said women combat soldiers are not a matter for debate or a problem to be contained, but “a finished operational fact” and a “strategic asset.” “The apology for our presence has ended,” they declared, adding that they are standing together as one front to defend the female fighting force. The letter also says recent developments show dangerous damage to the chain of command and an immediate threat to the IDF.
The officers argued that during wartime, allowing outside considerations to shape combat-unit composition is security negligence. They described the rabbis’ call as de facto incitement to refusal, an attempt to impose a civilian agenda on the army at the expense of operational needs, and said senior command silence is undermining commanders in the field. They demanded a formal order and clear command guidance on mixed service, zero tolerance for commanders who cooperate with excluding women, and a review by the minister and his ministry director general of service arrangements with yeshivas that encourage disobedience. The initiative was led by Moran Zer Katznstein, a former officer, founder of Women Build an Alternative and a primary candidate in the Democrats party. She said army command must remain solely in the hands of commanders, and warned that every extra day of silence is a surrender of command authority and of women soldiers.
