When it became clear the soldiers had in fact been given permission by their commander to turn away, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit issued a new statement acknowledging it had been the commander’s order and blamed him for the incident.Rabbi Yaakov Medan, co-dean of the prestigious Har Etzion yeshiva and a representative for the Hesder Yeshiva Association, said Thursday that the soldiers did not need to turn away at all from the instructor and it would have been better had they not done so.He insisted, however, they would not have done so had they not been told they could do so by their commander, something they took as an order.“It wasn’t right to give this order and they wouldn’t have done it. They could have looked down, closed their eyes, turned their heads. But they’re new recruits, what do they know about life?” Medan told The Jerusalem Post . “I have no doubt that none of them would have done this if they had not been ordered to do so. But in principle, without an order, it was greatly exaggerated to turn their back and look in the other direction.”Medan said ideally a male instructor would have been provided, but since that was not the case, the soldiers should have just participated in the exercise “in order not to cause such protest and insult.”The rabbi was, however, strongly critical of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, and called on head of the unit Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis to apologize over the incident.“The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit didn’t do its job. It took the side of the media, and didn’t check the facts. Things were done that would not be done with the Druze, or with the Bedouin, but with the religious Zionists you can do anything,” he said.Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, a senior leader in the hardline wing of the national-religious community, wrote on the Srugim news website it is forbidden to look at a woman and the soldiers had been correct in their actions.“The IDF Spokesman thinks that it is in the honor of a woman to look at her and the Torah says that the honor of a woman means you should not look at her,” he wrote.Chief Safed Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said the incident showed that IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot did not share the values of the national-religious community.“It is possible to live together if people will not try and force on us to give up on our values, on values you do not give up so quickly,” Eliyahu said in a video posted on his Twitter account. “Until now we have got on in the IDF, and learnt how to live together and not let female instructors give courses when they think this is not respectful. Should these soldiers give up on their values? They won’t give up on them. Is this how we will fight ISIS, and Hezbollah and Hamas?”The Hesder Yeshiva Association said in response to the incident that, “Unfortunately, there are various elements, including public fig- ures and senior politicians, who chose to besmirch and to conduct a fierce campaign on the backs of IDF soldiers, who work wonderfully and serve the IDF with great self-sacrifice, and through a sense of mission and deep connection to the State of Israel.”The association said it expects those who “jumped on the populist media band- wagon” and criticized the soldiers to apologize for “those crass and baseless statements that they spread before the details became clear.”את החניכים שהפנו את גבם למדריכת הצניחה יש להדיח. זו לא רק שנאת נשים, זה גם מרד. https://t.co/1EOjTA6Vho
— יאיר לפיד Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) August 8, 2018
Senior rabbis slam IDF over issue of female trainer
Calls for apology after MKs and army criticize religious soldiers who had been ordered to look away
