IDF Responds to Rabbis’ Letter: No Plan for Mixed Male and Female Service

The IDF responded today, Wednesday, to yesterday’s letter from rabbis and said that במסגרת the pilot to recruit female combat soldiers to the Armored Corps there is no plan to have men and women serve together in the same framework. "After two and a half years of fighting, the IDF needs every fighter, male and female. Senior IDF officers have been in continuous contact in recent months with heads of hesder yeshivas and their representatives, alongside other figures in the national-religious sector," the army said in its statement.

As a reminder, 12 heads of hesder yeshivas announced they were stopping the enlistment of their students into the Armored Corps, starting with the next draft and ahead of the expected induction next week. This followed the High Court of Justice ruling that female combat soldiers must be allowed to be integrated into the corps. In the letter they sent, the yeshiva heads demanded that the army find a solution for students whose profile does not allow service in the infantry. "We, the undersigned, heads of hesder yeshivas, whose students are on the front line of fighting, view the High Court’s decision, to require the IDF to integrate female soldiers into maneuvering armor, with grave concern," the signatories wrote. "The IDF is the army of the people of Israel, and the sanctity of the camp is the basis of the IDF’s spirit and of success in defeating the enemy. Bringing female soldiers into tanks together with male soldiers harms, spiritually and practically, combat capability." The yeshiva heads also added that "after serious deliberation, we decided that service in the Armored Corps is forbidden according to halakha, and therefore we will not send our students to serve in the Armored Corps starting with the next draft."

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