Women in the Israel Defense Forces
[7] After a five-week-long period in basic training, they could serve as clerks, drivers, welfare workers, nurses, radio operators, flight controllers, ordnance personnel, and course instructors.
[3] In the years leading up to the establishment of the IDF, military service for women existed in the lines of the Hashomer and Haganah paramilitary forces.
The Haganah stated in its law that its lines were open to "Every Jewish male or female, who is prepared and trained to fulfill the obligation of national defense."
[13] During the 1940s in Tel Aviv, a battalion was established in which women filled positions in security, weapons transport, and manned anti-aircraft posts.
During the winter of 1948, women joined the combat ranks of the Palmach and traveled from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with their weapons concealed inside their clothes.
The Women's Corps, under which all female Israeli soldiers served, was responsible for taking care of their needs, training, and integration into different IDF units.
Soon after the establishment of the IDF, a decree for the removal of women from frontline positions was brought into effect, and all female soldiers were accordingly pulled back into more secure areas.
The cited rationale for this decision revolved around concerns over the high possibility of female Israeli soldiers being captured and subsequently raped or sexually assaulted by hostile Arab forces.
She stated in an interview: "I do not know if I want to be a military judge my whole life, but I am glad that I was appointed; it proves that the IDF leaves almost all doors open for its female soldiers.
[2] In July 2018, female IDF captain Or Naʽaman ordered a Patriot missile battery to shoot down a Syrian drone and fighter jet over the Golan Heights, which earned her a military certificate of appreciation.
[17] By 2006, the first female pilots and navigators graduated from the IAF training course and several hundred women entered combat units, primarily in support roles such as intelligence gatherers, instructors, social workers, medics, and engineers.
Airborne helicopter engineer Keren Tendler was the first female Israeli combat soldier to be killed in an active warzone after the passing of the amendment.
[19] On 23 June 2011, Orna Barbivai became the first female aluf in the Israeli military upon her promotion to the role of commander of the Manpower Directorate; she was the second woman to serve on the General Staff.
[23] In the same year, the Israeli military announced that it would, for the first time in Israel's history, allow a transgender woman to serve in the army as a female soldier.
[29] Clause 16A of the Israeli Defense Service Law requires that all conscripted female combat soldiers serve active-duty for 2 years and 4 months, and in reserve until the age of 38.
[31] Women are also allowed to join the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, and to serve as search-and-rescue personnel in the IDF's Home Front Command.
This legislation raised considerable controversy, and IDF officials feared that the exemption could be abused by any non-religious woman who did not wish to serve and thus further exacerbate the already strained personnel resources of the Israeli military.
Women exempted on religious grounds were legally obliged to fulfill a period of alternative service doing social or educational work assigned to them.
Additionally, it called for creating an effective and well-funded system to ensure proper working environments for both male and female soldiers, and for drafting a "gender code" that would lay down explicit rules for interaction between the two sexes: "There should be no jobs or units categorically closed to either women or men ... Service in all units, postings and missions would be joint, subject to the rules of appropriate integration.
[36] In 1950, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog and Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, both chief rabbis, issued a ruling that forbade women joining the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
[38] As of 2014[update], David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel were opposed to religious women serving in the military, as was Shmuel Eliyahu.
The halakhic authorities saw the reality from a joint education and spiritual perspective, this view led them to their halakhic conclusion… The problem with IDF service is the general atmosphere that does not allow for a life without [religious] pitfalls.”[42] In response, politician Elazar Stern said: "A week ago the Chief Rabbis announced that a female serving in the IDF results in an aveira similar to Chillul Shabbos.
Regulations regarding gender equality had already been relaxed so that Haredim could be assured that men would not receive physical exams from female medical staff.
Even when social attitudes were changing in the 1980s, the IDF was still inclined towards tolerance and a senior army official warned of not blowing the "topic out of all proportion.
[47] Reports of sexual harassment against women in the Israeli military reached an average of one case per day in 1999 — an increase on the 280 complaints received in 1997.
Another case involved the promotion of General Nir Galili, who was accused of grooming a young female recruit for sexual relations.
This issue has led to the description of the Israeli military by the American feminist writer Laura Sjoberg as a "hothouse for exploitive sexual relationships" and a force whose fighting culture is based on "rampant licentiousness.
[51] Seven Israeli tank crew members from the Caracal battalion fought against Hamas terrorists[52] on October 7, 2023, continuously for 17 hours straight.
20-year-old tankers Hagar, Hila, Tal Sara, Michal, Karni, Ophir and Tamar fought against hundreds of terrorists equipped with Rocket-propelled grenades.
