A tank entirely staffed by female IDF soldiers is to be sent to the Egyptian border for the first time in Israel’s history, KAN news reported on Wednesday evening.The tank, which is set to be stationed on the Egyptian border in the coming days, will be operated entirely by female IDF soldiers, as well as a female commander.This news comes despite the IDF’s continued uncertainty about whether or not the latest pilot program to integrate women into the armored corps has been successful or not.
מחר מסתיים שלב ההכשרה בפיילוט נשים בשריון. בעוד עשרה ימים צפויות הלוחמות לתפוס קו בתעסוקה מבצעית בגבול מצרים יחד עם מפקדת טנק. טנק מגדרי על מלא. תוצאות הפיילוט טרם סוכמו על ידי הרמטכ״ל. עוד פרטים מיד במהדורה— רועי שרון Roy Sharon (@roysharon11) June 30, 2021
The first pilot program which was aimed at training women to operate tanks concluded in June 2018 with four female soldiers graduating as tank commanders and 2/3 of the overall program successfully completing the course. However, in April 2019 the military announced that despite the seeming success of the trial program, it would not be continuing and the women who qualified would not be permitted to continue working with the armored corps.An investigation was launched in early 2020 into whether or not the results of the trial program had been intentionally distorted to make it seem like it had been unsuccessful.
if(window.location.pathname.indexOf(“656089”) != -1){console.log(“hedva connatix”);document.getElementsByClassName(“divConnatix”)[0].style.display =”none”;}In November 2020 the IDF began preparations for a second round of the trial program, with several changes including the height and weight restrictions on the women and the duration of the operational missions they will be participating in.The program is expected to conclude in 2022, and a decision will then be made about the future of women in tanks.The news received a mixed response, with Dr. Nimrod Israely, CEO of Biofeed Israel, responding on Twitter by wishing the female course graduates success and saying that “professionally they are excellent and that is what is important.”Others were less enthusiastic. One irate response to the Tweet called the pilot program “an insult to the armored corps.” The historic news is only one of the recent changes being made in the IDF in the name of gender equality. In October of last year, the IDF announced that ten female soldiers from the IDF’s field intelligence corps would make up a drone operating team within the previously all-male field battalion stationed on the northern border of Israel, enabling them to cross the border into Lebanon, something that was previously reserved exclusively for male soldiers.
In a meeting held for International Women’s Day in March 2021, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi announced his intention to increase the number of female senior officers by 50% over the next five years, and also directed that steps be taken to increase the number of women in the IDFs technology and cyber related positions.
“I welcome the increase in the past few years in the number of women serving in the IDF and especially the increase in women serving in combat and technical positions and the increase in the amount of female officers,” said Kohavi in his speech at the time.
However, there are still those who are less than happy with the development. Just several hours before the news that an all-female tank crew would be stationed on a front line border, United Torah Judaism MK Uri Maklev took to the Knesset plenum to warn against women serving in the IDF, saying that it was not “human nature,” for them to do so.
His view his shared only by a minority of the population, however, according to a Na’amat poll conducted by Geocartography Knowledge earlier this year. The results of the poll showed that over 70% of wider Israeli society supported the idea of women serving in combat roles in the IDF, and only 11% held the belief that women should not serve in the IDF at all.
Eve Young contributed to this report.
Eve Young contributed to this report.
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