As the IDF continues to examine the option of recruiting women into various combat units previously closed to them, Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina) said he is against the idea because it would negatively affect the IDF’s goal of defeating the enemy.
“I think the integration of women into combat field units is a mistake,” he said Sunday at B’Sheva newspaper’s Jerusalem conference, adding that “the IDF’s role is to defeat the enemy and not to advance social agendas.”
Kahana, who holds the rank of colonel, served as a fighter pilot, squadron commander and was a soldier in the elite Sayeret Matkal special forces commando unit.
While women can serve in certain roles, they would not benefit the military in others, he said.
“There are places where the combination is relevant and women can make a very large contribution, such as fighter pilots,” Kahana said. “But it is not similar to infantry units, where there is a huge difference in the nature of the service. Just because there could be one soldier out of 1,000 who could withstand the pressure of being a fighter in the Givati Brigade, the cost is greater than the benefit.”
Several women have petitioned the High Court of Justice to force the military to integrate them into elite combat units, including the Armored Corps, Sayeret Matkal, Shayetet 13, Duvdevan and other commando units.
Last July, the IDF said it had formed “a professional committee with the goal of seriously and thoroughly considering – from a wide, inclusive and in-depth point of view – the possibility of integrating women into additional combat positions in the IDF.”
The committee is led by OC Ground Forces Maj.-Gen. Yoel Strick and OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Toledano.
On Monday, Kahana told the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality he was not against women going into battle, but they get injured far more than men.
Kahana said he went into battle with women and sent women into battle “in the most dangerous places in the Middle East,” adding that “for me, it’s not an issue. But all the studies show that mixed units do not perform as well, and women tend to get injured ten times more than men – orthopedic injuries and others. I ask, How many women will have to be severely injured to create this equality?”
Last month, 15 female soldiers became the first to be deployed along the Egyptian border as part of a program to assess whether to integrate women into the IDF Armored Corps.
The squad of all-female tank operators was deployed with the Paran Brigade and served in the mixed-gender Caracal Battalion.
The women will operate Merkava Mark IV tanks after they completed training at the Armored Corps School at Shizafon, where they underwent advanced training. A previous trial was deemed inconclusive.
The second pilot program is at least twice the size of the previous one, and the military has increased the height and weight requirements of women who want to take part in it.
The IDF has allocated more time for the women to be deployed as they carry out operational duties along the borders with Egypt and Jordan.