Two hundred fifty seven IDF officers sent a letter on Wednesday to the chief of staff, the defense minister, and the director general of the Defense Ministry, demanding an end to what they described as a growing 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 on operational decisions is harming national security. In the letter, they wrote that “succumbing to external pressures is security negligence and the dismantling of the people’s army from within,” and called on the leadership to reject rabbinic letters and the exclusion of women from the military. They added, “Stop the madness immediately,” and said female fighters are not a subject for debate but a completed operational fact and a strategic asset. “The apology for our presence is over,” they said.
The signatories also said there is a dangerous erosion of the chain of command and that foreign considerations are influencing the composition of combat forces during wartime. They described rabbinic calls as, in effect, incitement to refusal, and said silence from senior command weakens both the army and commanders in the field. They want an official order and clear command guidance on mixed service, with zero tolerance for officers who cooperate with the exclusion of women.
They further called on the defense minister and his ministry’s director general to review service arrangements with yeshivas that encourage disobedience to the chain of command. The letter was initiated by Moran Zer Katzenstein, a former officer and founder of Women Building an Alternative, who is running in the primaries of the Democrats party. She said army command must remain solely in the hands of commanders and argued that every additional day of silence means giving up command authority and the women fighters who gave their lives to the state.
