IDF Spokesman’s Unite
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has announced that later this year, it intends to create a female-only border defence platoon to accommodate religious female soldiers who until now have not been able to serve in a fighting unit due to the modesty concerns of fighting alongside men. The unit will be incorporated into one of the existing mixed-gender battalions.
According to Israeli news channel Kan, who first reported this announcement, the request for a female-only unit came from several Seminary leaders – seminary is where many religious women go to further their Jewish education after completing school and before starting their national service.
They told the IDF that among their students there was a strong desire to serve in combat roles, but religious obstacles, such as the challenge of observing strict modesty laws whilst serving alongside male soldiers, were inhibiting them. The unit will be created early this year, when the first conscripts will be drawn from women enlisting into combat units in March.
Previously, women who were considered religious by Israel would be required to enlist in national service in a civilian vocation, whilst secular women were required to enlist in the IDF. The army insists that this change is not due to a social agenda of requiring religious women to serve in combat units, but creating this unit gives women the choice by providing a practical solution.
Although there are many outspoken critics of this new female-only platoon, gendered units are not new to the IDF; military units already exist for religious men who request to keep their interaction with women to a minimum, for similar modesty reasons.
As well as this, last year the IDF began an ongoing pilot program to assess the feasibility of female armoured crews, by deploying a company of all-women tank operators along the Egyptian border. This programme was implemented after a 2020 petition by four female teenagers who asked the High Court of Justice to force the IDF to allow them to try out for combat units that are currently open only to men – prior to this, women could only serve in light infantry units.
