A panel made up of Israeli Supreme Court justices, led by President Esther Hayut, issued an order last Tuesday on the conditions instructing the Israel Defense Forces to justify why it will not integrate women as combatants in the armored divisions, as well as in the infantry, and in almost all 'special' units. The night before, the High Court rejected out of hand an opposite petition submitted by Rabbanit Michal Negan, the head of the "Tzali" pre-military preparatory school for girls, and whose students have been serving in the non-combat positions in the IDF for years.
Negan requested to join as a friend of the court in the discussion at the High Court of Combatants and to explain why the inclusion of women in the special combat units could harm them. The judges decided to be content with the written position submitted by Negan and refused to allow her attorney, to further elaborate the opinion.
High Court: Should women serve in all IDF combat units? https://t.co/kxNIEJhIsd
— drdivine (@drdivine) June 27, 2023
In a short interview with “Makor Rishon”, Attorney Tzifnat Nordman, Negan’s attorney explained that the petition was submitted with the aim of receiving a significant reference for the well-being of young women, and also because the IDF itself, which until recently had reservations about integrating women into combat units and even presented the possible problems with this, has gradually retreated from this position. It was therefore important to make that voice heard in court.
"We did not ask to completely cancel any plan to integrate women into additional units, and we did not pretend to determine what is possible and what is not," Attorney Nordman clarified, "what we asked is to stop all decisions until a thorough examination of the danger to women serving in these units is done. The petition is based on the conclusions of the team appointed by the former Chief of Staff, Aviv Kochavi, which stated that the risk to women in these units is particularly high. Despite this, the current Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, throws the conclusions in the trash, and develops a model of 'special units first'. What about the risk to combatants that you yourself said existed?"
I like how Israel does it. After high school graduation, young men and women are conscripted into the IDF for a couple of years. I don't recall the exact number of months; about 6 months longer for the males.
— Hermeneutic in a Cloister (@Exodus15_11) June 15, 2023
They are also trained in self defense (Krav Maga), and combat fitness. pic.twitter.com/CWuCAP7Cxh
According to Attorney Nordman, Halevi's new decision was made without considering all the relevant parameters needed for qualifying a combatant for special unit service, and on the other hand, irrelevant considerations were taken into account. “The Chief of Staff even canceled these parameters after petitioners complained that the threshold conditions actually block the way because, in fact, almost no woman will be able to meet them. So decide: either the threshold parameters are relevant, then the question of how many women will meet them is irrelevant, or they are not relevant, Then we have to explain what the tests that the IDF now believes are required, and what the previous team, who sat on the committee for many months, did wrong."
