IDF chief said to promise rabbis increased gender separation

Eisenkot reportedly vows separate bathrooms, sleeping quarters by end of 2017; army says he only seeks to enforce existing policies

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has reportedly promised to increase gender segregation in the military in a bid to calm tensions with religious leaders surrounding the role of women in the army.

According to Channel 2 news Eisenkot last week promised a delegation of Zionist religious rabbis that by the end of 2017, male and female soldiers would not share sleeping quarters at guard posts and that any unisex bathrooms would be abolished. He also promised to separate male and female battalions at the IDF’s officer training base.

The IDF chief further said that new positions offered to women would necessitate the approval of the army’s Manpower Directorate.

In response to the report the IDF issued a statement insisting the IDF chief had made no changes to policy, and was simply seeking to enforce existing regulations.

“Orders regarding joint service were not drawn up in the last few days, and some of them have no ties to religion,” the IDF said adding that the issues “have been a part of the army’s orders for years.”

The IDF has in recent years been increasing the integration of female soldiers in combat units, most recently allowing women to serve in the Armored Corps for the first time in the nation’s history. The move raised hackles in the religious community who consider males serving in close proximity to women immodest.

The debate was reignited in recent weeks when video emerged of a hardline rabbi saying that Jewish women who enlist in the military “are not Jewish on the way out.” Rabbi Yigal Levinstein was also recorded as saying that IDF service drives women “crazy,” that no one would want to marry a female soldier.

Rabbi Yigal Levinstein speaking at the 'Zion and Jerusalem' convention in July 2016. (Screen capture: YouTube) — Rabbi Yigal Levinstein speaking at the ‘Zion and Jerusalem’ convention in July 2016. (Screen capture: YouTube)

Levinstein, who co-heads a prominent pre-army religious preparatory program, later apologized for his aggressive tone, but refused to back down from the content.

The footage broadcast on Channel 2 news generated a harsh backlash, and last week Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman threatened to withdraw accreditation from Levinstein’s academy if he didn’t resign.