Female soldiers say were made to move bases for Haredi soldies
Women serving as military drivers in the Jenin sector had to leave their base and move to the Tulkarm area after the ultra-Orthodox reservists from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion were stationed there.
The female soldiers, who serve as drivers for routine security assignments, patrol the most sensitive places in the country. They drive combat soldiers to their guard posts and patrol with them along the borders.
Both men and women serve in this role. But even though the female soldiers were trained to fill it, the Netzah Yehuda reservists announced they were not willing for women to drive them to the different military posts. The IDF decided to acquiesce to their request and replaced the female driver with male ones.
"They were simply told there are religious soldiers who can't get into the vehicle with them," said a source close to the female soldiers.
The arrival of the religious Netzah Yehuda soldiers to the Shaked post disrupted the female soldiers' routine. Not only did they have to leave their regular bases and were moved around from one base to the next in the Tulkarm sector, the base they are now stationed in doesn't have women's bathroom, with some of the stalls out of order. The showers in the base are also not appropriate for their needs.
"They're living in subhuman conditions," said one of the soldiers' relatives. "They took them from the place they're used to, to some remote hole, which is not even fit for dwelling."
"Their job is important. I, personally, am very proud of them for their courage and goodwill. It's a shame that the IDF only says that women are important, but fails to make them feel so," the relative said.
Another relative was even harsher. "This is spitting in the face of the female soldiers. They serve in difficult places, risking their lives in the name of ideology, and do their job just as good as men. To the IDF, they are supposedly equal, but in reality they're not. Furthermore, this is an unprofessional decision that does not serve the needs of the IDF. These female drivers know this sector the best, and now in their stead there are drivers who don't know the area."
Reports of the controversial decision reached The Secular Forum. "It cannot be that valued soldiers who chose a challenging service will be hurt just for the religious soldiers to feel comfortable," said Michal Shalev-Reicher, one of the leaders of the Forum. "There's a blatant imbalance here and (the army) is severely ignoring both the female soldiers' rights and the IDF's needs."
The IDF Spokesman's Office offered the following response: "In recent weeks, and in accordance with the changes to the sector's borders, there has been a decline in the operational need for drivers at the Shaked post. As a result, and in accordance with the Joint Service Ordinance, the female drivers were temporarily moved to another post. As part of the conditions for the inclusion of Haredim in the IDF, the soldiers who were stationed in post are serving in a male environment.
"We would also like to state that as a matter of routine, there is a regular turnover of drivers between the different posts, and the post the female drivers were moved to does have bathrooms and showers for girls."
