The Israeli government is throwing women under the bus in the name of religion. And nobody in any position of power seems to care. Many, in fact, are encouraging it. 

Over the past several months, as much of the Israeli public has focused on the demand to draft ultra-Orthodox (haredi) men into the Israel Defense Forces, far less attention has been paid to what this process would mean for women serving. And in a not-even-secret process, the draft debate has become an excuse to further exclude women –  not to integrate haredi men while preserving women’s equality, but rather to redefine the army in ways that make women’s presence increasingly restricted, or even absent entirely. 

Last week, as charged arguments on the haredi draft were flying through the Knesset, a group of religious Zionist Knesset members marched through the building demanding that whatever the haredi soldiers get, “their” soldiers get, too. That is: If haredi men get the “right” to women-free zones, religious Zionist (male) soldiers should be granted that “right”, too. 

This is what happened: In early February, the Chief of Staff approved a new General Staff ordinance regulating the enlistment and service frameworks for ultra-Orthodox men in the IDF. For the first time, what had previously been informal arrangements were formalized into binding military policy, including the creation of designated women-free units and bases. The all-male frameworks will not only be in ultra-Orthodox units, but also in training, command, and mixed-service contexts. The order does not offer any clear safeguards to ensure women’s access to roles, mobility, or promotion. This means that any male soldier who decides that he does not want women around – in his training, in his mess tent, in his rituals or any ceremony – can make the request, and women will be summarily ousted. Just like that. For being a woman. 

These things are already happening, as I chronicled in my book,  The War on Women in Israel as well as in other places, like this article in Slate. But it has been, until now, illegal. All that is about to change as women’s exclusion becomes officially permitted by law. All that in order to get haredi soldiers to be willing to be drafted into the army. (Well, maybe, if they don’t revolt anyway.)

Surprisingly, several religious Zionist MKs supported the new ordinance. Rather than side with their modernized, army-serving public, they sided with their retrograde, openly misogynistic, anti-army, ultra-Orthodox colleagues. Minister Orit Strook, MK Avi Maoz,  and Minister Simcha Rothman led the march to exclude women, all from the religious Zionist camp, not the haredi one. Their credentials speak to where this group is heading. Maoz, we should remember, is the homophobic leader of one-person bloc within the religious Zionist faction charged with of all things “National Jewish Identity” and “Jewish Values curriculum”, and the radical Strook –  who is currently under investigation for running a religious sex cult, and who regularly acts as a megaphone for homophobia and Smotrich’s fascism – have said that they oppose women’s inclusion in the army because it........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)