Responding to rabbis’ threat, IDF says men and women won’t serve in ‘same framework’ in Armored Corps

The IDF responds to a threat by the leaders of 12 yeshivas who said today that they would no longer send their students to join tank units because of an army plan to integrate women into the Armored Corps as part of a pilot program.

The yeshivas are all part of the “hesder” program, which allows observant young men, typically from a religious nationalist background, to combine several years of Torah studies with a shortened military service currently set at one year and five months.

“After approximately two and a half years of intense, multi-front and unprecedented war, during which the operational missions of the IDF were expanded, and the burden on the reserve forces increased significantly, the IDF needs every male and female combat soldier,” the military says in a statement.

“As the people’s army, the IDF places the highest importance on integrating all populations, while making a great effort to preserve their way of life and needs, in a manner that does not harm one population at the expense of another,” the IDF says.

The rabbis in their letter wrote that they “take a very serious view of the decision by the High Court of Justice to require the IDF to integrate female combat soldiers” in the Armored Corps, after the court ruled last month that the army must begin a trial program for female soldiers to serve in the corps by November, following repeated delays by the military.

“The High Court of Justice did not instruct the IDF to enlist female soldiers into the Armored Corps, but rather instructed it to conduct the planned pilot on the matter,” the military says.

The IDF says it is “working to integrate women into combat roles wherever possible.”

“A pilot, by definition, is an initial trial intended to examine the possibility of continuing [the program],” the military says, adding that the pilot will be conducted in accordance with the military’s existing protocols on men and women serving together, “while ensuring compliance with all required operational and professional standards, and in accordance with operational needs.”

Despite the false claims that men would be forced to serve inside tanks with women, the military has been planning only gender-segregated tanks.

“Among all the options being examined in the pilot, there is no alternative in which men and women will serve together within the same framework,” the IDF says.

The IDF says that in recent months, senior military officials have “maintained continuous contact with the heads of hesder yeshivas and their representatives, alongside other figures in the religious-Zionist community, regarding this matter.”

The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits — mostly combat troops — due to the strain caused by the war.