JERUSALEM (JTA) — Religious male soldiers have refused to participate in a commanders’ training course for the Israel Defense Forces Armored Corps after it admitted women for the first time.
The invitation to three women, part of the IDF’s first cohort of female combat tank operators, who finished their training at the end of last year, was announced with great fanfare earlier this week.
On Wednesday, Army Radio reported that several religious combat soldiers from the tank unit said they will not attend the course due to the women’s presence, saying it is religiously offensive to them.
The army told the Times of Israel that the courses for the men and women would be on parallel, but separate, tracks.
The women who completed their training as combat tank operators will serve in in all-female tanks for the new Border Defense Force.
