Gantz says no girls in Golani

IDF Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz said Wednesday said that while he had no problem with female fighter pilots, the IDF would not allow female companies in infantry brigades.

While attending a session at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the army chief was asked about his take on women serving alongside men in the IDF’s elite units.

Gantz said there were three parameters that needed to be examined regarding women’s service in the army. The most important thing to ask, he said, was whether “our mission would be accomplished.” Also, can soldiers continue to function in the environment created? And finally, can the required number of recruits be found to justify separate units?

“I don’t think there can be female companies in the Golani [Brigade],” Gantz said. However, “there’s no problem for a women to be a fighter pilot.”

Gantz did not elaborate as to why female IAF pilots were more acceptable to him than female infantrywomen.

Since the 1994 ruling in which the High Court forced the army to open more options for women’s service, a few of them finished the three-year-long flight course. In December, an Orthodox woman completed the course for the first time to become an F-16 navigator. The event punctuated a recent growth in the number of religious women choosing military over national service, the more traditional option.

In addition to female pilots, the army has opened other units to women, especially in supporting roles such as communication and intelligence field jobs. The Caracal Battalion, which operates along Israel’s border with Egypt, is the only field brigade where men and women fight shoulder to shoulder as equals.