"The right person in the right place".

“The war has proven that women can assume every military role based on ability. Following the performance of female combat soldiers at the battlefield, women’s service in the IDF will undergo a dramatic change.” This was said by Minister of Defense Yoav Galant in a conversation with female combat battalion commanders to mark International Women’s Day in March 2024.

He also said: “each woman in her sector – on land, in the air, in the intelligence corps, at the home front and at sea – leads the soldiers under her command to wherever they need to go, to whatever they need to do, with correct establishment, with the trust that is created. And finally, sometimes, this is tested in battle. This has been tested and has been proven to work. It has a far reaching effect on the IDF and on our country. It wasn’t obvious before the war, and to me it is obvious now”.

Galant added that, “the war is a place where things are shaped, at least one generation or possibly two generations ahead. And what young soldiers experience today, will automatically affect the military throughout their service. And this will become a vector that everyone will understand could be done, could be imitated, could be performed.”

And speaking of the future Galant said: “this war is a new beginning, not only as far as military combat and not only for women in the IDF, but with regards to the relationship between the society and the military. And the significance of this is that the IDF will gradually open up positions everywhere fully, based on ability. This is the main point, and here we have a lot of work to do. We will see that as a result of what you’ve done and what your male and female subordinates have done, there will be dramatic change. We are already seeing the first promotions in major forces, and this will intensify”.

In February 2024 the Supreme Court was called upon to decide on several petitions demanding that the IDF should fulfill the Security Service Law to the letter and open up all combat positions to women (except those whose nature and essence make it impossible). The Supreme Court was also called upon to determine whether women should be given the right to be screened for IDF combat units in the same way that men are.

It is a known fact that until not long ago there was a debate within Israeli society around the question of the IDF’s goal: was it to win the war or to promote equality? Those objecting to the integration of women in IDF combat units ignored the fact that even today, 18% of the IDF’s combat forces are women (IDF figures from before the October 2023 war). Even testimonies of commanders in the field recounting the female fighters’ perfect performance, even before the Iron Swords war, could not tip the scales. In the eyes of those who objected, the people who fought for the right of women who were able to do it to serve and protect their country and its residents according to their capabilities were attempting to weaken the military in the name of zany progressive values.

Although the military appreciates the contribution of women and their motivation to volunteer and fight shoulder to shoulder alongside their comrades, it wasn’t convinced until now of the necessity to integrate women into all combat units, or there were other factors that had an effect. Therefore, the military refused to open up all units for screening based on qualifications rather than gender. The window that was opened recently thanks to a sitting of the High Court of Justice made it possible to integrate women in several combat units such as Yahalom, the search and rescue unit (669) and Sayeret Matkel. The integration was to be based on pilots and the proving of capabilities, in addition to the screening process.

In October 2022 the IDF announced that the pilot to integrate female combat soldiers on tanks had been successful. Among other things, the pilot consisted of special training in the maneuvering armored corps. Therefore, it could be assumed that women would soon be integrated into the maneuvering armored corps as well. However, in his answer to the High Court in 2023, the Chief of Staff Hertzi Halevi surprisingly came out with the following opposite announcement: “it is doubtful whether female combat soldiers on tanks that protect our borders have the ability to fulfill the performance parameters required in the maneuvering armored corps”. This was in spite of the fact that the teams trained on tanks in protecting Israel’s borders had participated in special training in the maneuvering armored corps, and in spite of the success of the female combat soldiers on the tanks in border protection tasks.

The issue of integrating female combat soldiers in the maneuvering armored corps reflects a viewpoint shared by many that integrating women into combat units may lead to the weakening of the military. The events of October 7, 2023 and the Iron Swords war seem to have shown that this viewpoint has no place today. The bravery of the female soldiers from the “Pere” company as well as other female fighters serves as evidence that, “the armored corps women-fighters pilot has been a success”. But this time, the war has been the pilot itself and having to prove this point.

This example, which is one of many, alongside the many other acts of bravery that we have witnessed, shows that an in depth change is required in the assumptions preventing the integration of women in all combat units. It is no longer possible to argue that the IDF’s supreme goal of “winning and defeating the enemy” does not align with having women serve in every unit and position of the IDF.

A deep shock was experienced by Israeli society with the October 7, 2023 attack when the degree of evil, cruelty and heartlessness of the enemy was revealed. It was immediately translated into unprecedented civic action stemming from a personal sense of duty to assist and contribute to society and be a part of it. As the IDF is to a large degree a reflection of Israeli society, it can be predicted that the social processes that occurred after the October seventh events will have an effect on the motivation of religious and non-religious women to assume combat duties, in order to fulfill their ability to feel pride about their contribution to the society and to the country’s defense. No one has the right to deny them this.

We didn’t need this terrible war to know that blocking women from serving in combat units, means failing to utilize the IDF’s manpower potential in the best possible way. If before October 7, 2023 the phrase “utilizing manpower potential” was translated in our minds to technically optimizing the system, we now know that we are speaking of life itself and that these are crucial decisions. It became clear at once that lack of female combat soldiers meant fewer hands holding weapons, a smaller force that can attack, less female commanders that soldiers can follow.

As opposed to the spirit of the Joint Service Order which attempts to integrate women while taking into account the different social constraints, the voices of those objecting to complete integration of women in the military are still being heard. They base their position on the purpose of the Joint Service Order according to which the IDF should be assisted in fulfilling its operational goal. According to this narrative, the integration of women in more combat positions than those that have already been opened to them will weaken the military’s operational capabilities, undermine IDF’s goal of protecting the existence of the Israeli state and the safety of its citizens and residents, and affect the military’s ability to defeat the enemy and win the war.

This narrative, according to which integrating women into combat positions would affect the military’s operational capabilities, serves as a doomsday device as far as integrating women into combat units. Alongside a hidden or even candid threat that religious male soldiers would refuse to serve in mixed units, the fear is also a result of the significant increase that can be seen in the number of religious women who choose to serve in the military and particularly in important positions, including combat roles.

It is a known fact that according to the Security Service Law, religious women are exempt from service in the IDF if they choose to declare this. Whereas in the past most of them preferred to be part of the National Service, in recent years there has been a change of trend reflected in a significant increase in the number of religious women who choose to serve in the military. It is also reflected in the variety of religious educational institutions whose religious female graduates join the military, including schools where the National Service was formerly the only option.

It is true that the concept of joint service officially has to do with the wellbeing of religious male soldiers and the need to permit them to experience a type of service that respects the constraints that affect them based on Jewish law, but it seems like the fact that more and more religious women have been violating the rabbis’ instructions not to serve in the military is the core reason for the rabbis’ objection to expanding women’s service in the IDF.

In June 2019 it was announced that the IDF predicts that within five years the number of religious women serving in the different IDF units would be doubled. Time will say if this was correct. But in any event, even today a significant percent of all religious female soldiers serve in combat positions, and the others have other important roles.

So although the Joint Service Order does not cover the question of opening additional units to women, these two questions have become interconnected, both in the public discourse and in the IDF’s directives and perception with regards to these topics.

One of the reasons for the curbing of the trend of improved integration of women in the military, as reflected in rulings and amendments of the law, lies with religionization processes in the military. These processes are the result of the increase in the number religiously observant people among the IDF’s senior officers and the increasing influence of rabbis on what happens in the military. The rabbis are also concerned about the physical proximity of female soldiers to religious male soldiers, many of whom serve in combat units.

Consequently, the IDF needs to find a solution that would balance the different interests of the groups serving in the military. Such a solution would need to ensure an egalitarian service for women and on the other hand provide an answer to the needs of religious male soldiers. In 2003, following the thorough administrative work performed on this subject, the IDF published the Proper Integration Order (later the Joint Service Order) which was supposed to provide an answer to different aspects relating to the joint service of men and women in the IDF. The basic assumption of the order issued by the General Staff was that the IDF must permit everyone serving in the military to experience a type of service that respects and does not negatively affect their identity. And indeed, Section 3 of the Joint Service Order (the 2018 version) clarifies that, “the joint service policy has the purpose of fulfilling the IDF’s operational goal and maintaining the cohesion of the military framework. The joint service policy is based on the fact that the IDF is the military of a Jewish democratic state and on the concept of the People’s Military which means that all genders, religions and ethnicities serve in the IDF, and the contribution of everyone – men and women alike – is essential to the military’s success in achieving its goals. This policy is the result of a respectful, egalitarian, tolerant outlook stemming from the value of human dignity and the spirit of the IDF.”

Although the Joint Service Order has the goal of serving as a solution for the regulation of mixed service by men and women, and although the Order has been amended twice based on the demand of the major rabbis of the Religious Zionism and has been approved by them, and although just recently, a special team appointed by the Chief of staff, Lieutenant General Kokhavi, and headed by the commander of the Ground Forces, Major General Strik, that had the purpose of reviewing the integration of women into combat positions, including positions within the infantry units and the elite units, determined that, “the Joint Service Order serves its purpose and permits joint service by men and women in the IDF in general and in combat units in particular” – it is still being interpreted by those who have vested interests as an order that limits women in the military space and permits the exclusion of women from various military positions while giving preference and precedence to the needs of the religious male soldier.

Furthermore, in the name of the Order’s purpose to assist the IDF in “fulfilling its operational goal”, there have been those who justify the narrative that says that, “equality will harm victory”. This means that letting women assume additional combat positions to those that have already been opened to them would negatively affect the military’s operational capabilities, undermine the IDF’s goal to protect the existence of the Israeli state and the safety of its citizens and residents, and negatively affect the military’s ability to defeat the enemy and win the war.

The most important turning point as far as women’s service in the IDF came about with the decision of the Supreme Court in Alice Miller’s High Court petition (1995) and in the ensuing amendment of the Security Service Law (2000).

Alice Miller filed her petition to the High Court after the military had rejected her request to be screened for flight training due to her being a woman. The High Court determined that women have a right to equality in their military service, both formally and in practice, and that the military policy that prevents them from serving as pilots just because of their gender is unacceptable. This ruling had an extensive effect on the units that the IDF instructed to open to women, including those that had been under the monopoly of men until then. The change created by this ruling did not only focus on the procedural aspect. In its ruling, the Court instructed the IDF to integrate women in its ranks not only because of the country’s defense and security needs but also out of the commitment to the principle of equality.

This is what the honorable judge Strasberg Cohen said in the ruling:

“When the value of equality comes into collision with the value of national security as derived from the needs of military, national security can be seen as a preferred value that has a higher status than the value of equality, despite the importance of the latter. But national security is not a magic word, and its precedence does not occur in every case and under every circumstance, and is not the same for every degree of security and harm to such security.”

And she added:

“A society that respects its fundamental values and the fundamental rights of its members should be willing to pay a reasonable price in order to prevent the value of equality from becoming an empty word.”

On January 1, 2000, as a result of the High Court ruling, an amendment was made to the Security Service Law stating that every woman had an equal right to that of a man to serve in any position in her military service, unless this was impossible due to the essence and nature of the position. The first position that was opened to women was aviation, and afterwards additional positions were gradually opened such as naval officers, border guard soldiers, antiaircraft soldiers, Caracal battalion soldiers and airborne medical fighters.

It seemed at the time that the IDF was willing to promote a more significant service for women. Accordingly, Major General (retired) Yehuda Segev was appointed to be the head of a committee that had the purpose of examining the shaping of women’s service in the IDF for the following decade. The committee published its recommendations in September 2007 and determined that the guiding principle for screening and posting women should be: “the right person at the right place”. According to this principle, it was determined that, “men and women will be utilized in service in the same way, based on practical criteria reflecting the IDF’s needs and the recruits’ energy, capabilities and personality traits rather than their gender”. The committee also determined that, “there will not be any positions or forces categorically forbidden to women or men”. However, most of the committee’s recommendations were not implemented, and the tidings of change disappointed.

The IDF is one of the only armies in the world that recruits women for military service based on a mandatory service law. As of 2022, women constitute about 40% of the IDF’s regular forces, and about 25% of the officers. Despite the mandatory service, as of 2023 the rate of women’s enlistment is only 55% of the total women who have reached enlistment age. This can be compared to 68.8% of the men subject to mandatory service. 36.6% of the women who should have been enlisted are exempted from service for religious reasons, and an additional 8.2% are exempted for other reasons.

Women have served in the IDF since its inception in 1948, as part of the Women’s Corps established on May 16, 1948 by female officers who had served in the British military. In 1949 women’s service was formalized under the Security Service Law 1949. The Law stated that every person, man or woman, who was an Israeli citizen or permanent resident, had reached the age of 18 years and had not been granted an exemption from service was “subject to service”, which meant they could be recruited to the military. The Law also stated that women could apply for an exemption from service for reasons relating to religion and conscience and for three additional reasons: parenthood, marriage and pregnancy.

Although before the IDF was formed women had served in the Jewish underground organizations in various positions including combat positions, after it was established (and some believe this was a result of women having been captured by the enemy) a decision was made that there would be three categories of positions that would not be assigned to women: positions requiring physical fitness, positions characterized by unsuitable service conditions and combat positions.

So at the beginning women mainly served in positions traditionally perceived as feminine roles such as clerks, teachers and nurses. This was based on the order establishing the Women’s Corps that stated women would serve in protecting settlements, in professional positions, in administrative positions and in auxiliary positions but not in combat positions.

In the 50’s the female fighter pilot Yael Rom was able to overcome the barriers of the policy excluding women from combat positions and was given the opportunity to take part in important battles. She was part of the force that flew the paratroopers in the Mitla Battle during the Sinai War, and was therefore in the formation that dropped the paratroopers in the IDF’s first actual parachuting operation.

The idea that women belonged in the home front and men should be at the battlefront continued to prevail after the Yom Kippur War in 1973. But at the same time, after the war the military adopted a new, extended policy with regards to the posting of women in the military, which made it possible to train women for positions that had only been open to men until that point. At that stage, the expanding of women’s service was not based on an idea of equality, but on the need to establish a new force where men would be moved away from home front positions into positions that would allow them to take part in combat. Therefore, most of the training efforts focused on such positions as instructors, drivers, aircraft mechanics and various communication posts.

However, some far reaching changes were made during those years with regards to women’s military service, such as removing the restrictions that had been formerly in place concerning the presence of women in war zones, particularly outside Israel’s boundaries (1982), and cancelling the clause in the Security Service Law listing the positions that were closed to women (1987).