An Israeli army officer will face discipline for sexually offensive statements he reportedly made during a lecture to Jerusalem high school students.
Addressing students at the Rehavia High School last week, Col. Gershon Hacohen reportedly said that “men are meant to be warriors, just as women are meant to be prostitutes.”
Hacohen was also quoted as having said that women soldiers serving in clerical positions in the Israel Defense Force could easily be replaced by computers and telephone answering machines.
Hacohen later apologized for the remarks. In an interview on Army Radio, he did not deny having said “something to the effect” that prostitution is a female occupation just as fighting is a male one.
“I made a mistake. It just slipped out. I wasn’t thinking,” he said.
An army spokesman said in a statement that Hacohen’s remarks did not befit an army officer and that action would be taken against him.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
