Several female IDF soldiers were blocked from entering a military base in the Jordan Valley on Thursday, according to an N12 News report.
The soldiers, some seven officers and reservists all in uniform, arrived with the rest of their battalion, which had been ordered to relocate to the Jordan Valley. They were met by commanders from the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Netzach Yehuda battalion, who claimed that the female soldiers could not enter while the haredi soldiers were there doing operational exercises.
Despite the female soldiers' battalion commander's efforts to push back against the Netzach Yehuda commander, the women were not permitted inside the base.
'Lessons will be learned'
Per the N12 report, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit responded to the incident, claiming it was the result of rapid decision-making and poor coordination of forces.
"Due to the lack of coordination, the battalion headquarters was prevented from entering the camp," the IDF said. "Lessons will be learned."
This is not an isolated incident.
In November, three female combat intelligence soldiers, pressed by the Post to discuss challenges in the IDF, cited regularly being denied sleeping quarters at certain bases with large numbers of religious soldiers after late-night operations.
The soldiers said they were told by the base guards that there were no separate quarters on the base for women to sleep, and that it would be religiously problematic for them to sleep in the same quarters where there were religious men.
They said that they don't mind sleeping in the field when it is part of their tradecraft and mission. While not wanting to impair others' religious views, they also did not feel it was fair to compel them to sleep in the field, and it seemed odd that bases where female soldiers might even occasionally show up would not have some small designated quarters for them.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.