IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir responded to a letter from hesder yeshiva heads who said they would refuse to send students if the Armored Corps integration pilot proceeds, stating there is no intention to have men and women serve together in tank crews, during training or operational phases.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir responded Wednesday afternoon to a letter from 25 hesder yeshiva heads who said they would refuse to send students if the Armored Corps female integration pilot proceeds. In his statement, Zamir said there is "no intention whatsoever to integrate men and women together in tank crews, during training or operational phases." The statement follows a discussion Zamir convened earlier today on the pilot, as The Zioneer reported at 15:21. In that discussion, Zamir ruled that men and women will not serve together in the same company or in tank crews. He also set two success criteria: meeting professional combat standards without compromise, and establishing a combat framework capable of carrying out security and warfare missions.
The thread began at 13:42 Jerusalem, when initial reports indicated Zamir had moved the pilot outside the corps. By a subsequent update at the same time, it was clarified that tank crews would be all-female or all-male. The chief of staff's criteria were further detailed in a third item, explicitly addressing the hesder yeshiva letter. The source quality evolved from an unconfirmed media report to an on-record statement from the IDF via its official channels.
As The Zioneer reported earlier, the hesder yeshiva community — which combines Torah study with military service — posed a rare public challenge to IDF policy with the threatened refusal.
What remains open is whether the hesder yeshiva heads will accept Zamir's response as sufficient to call off the threatened refusal, and how the pilot's success criteria will be assessed in practice.
6 developments
- DevelopingEntrepreneur David Portal attacks women-in-Armored Corps pilot: 'They are unsuitable, period'
- DevelopingPre-army academy head says Armored Corps mixed pilot threatens religious soldiers
- DevelopingReligious-Zionist organization Torat Lechima accuses IDF chief of radical feminism, calls on government to block women in Armored Corps pilot
- DevelopingHesder yeshiva heads say they have secured framework on female tank crew recruitment
Source and signal
- Internal intake