Soldiers in the Mixed Gender IDF Karakul Combat Infantry Brigade Complete Their Basic Training

Photograph

By: Anonymous

Date: December 15, 2005

Source: Getty Images

About the Photographer: This photograph is part of the collection at Getty Images, a worldwide provider of visual content materials to such communications groups as advertisers, broadcasters, designers, magazines, new media organizations, newspapers, and producers. The photographer is not known.

INTRODUCTION

In 1948, when Israel began to fight its War of Independence, the majority of the Jewish population of Palestine was mobilized to fight against surrounding Arab forces. The original military volunteer youth organization was called Palmach. A forerunner to the present day Israeli Defense Force (IDF), the organization was based on egalitarian and socialist principles. As a result, combat forces included both men and women. However, women began to be excluded from combat roles in 1950.

By 1959, the Defense Service Law was passed to regulate the obligation of service for all Israeli citizens and permanent residents of Israel. According to the law, all women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, who are physically fit, unmarried with no children, and without religious objections must serve one year and nine months in the IDF. Men serve three years.

In 1995, Alice Miller brought a suit to the Israeli Supreme Court petitioning for admittance into military flight school. As a result, the Defense Service Law was amended to enable women recruits to serve in combat related units. The law allows women to serve in the police force, border police, and paramilitary border police. In 1999, the IDF announced that women would begin serving as combat soldiers along the Egyptian and Jordanian borders. This unit, called the Karakal Company, serves as a border patrol company in search of drug smugglers and terrorist infiltrators. The mixed gender company operates under the Nahal Brigade.

The Nahal Brigade was established during the War of Independence in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973), leader of the struggle to establish the state of Israel, and Nahal is a Hebrew acronym for Naor Halutzi Lohem, or the Fighting Pioneer Youth. Ben-Gurion stated, "The Army is the supreme symbol of duty, and as long as women are not equal to men in performing this duty, they have not yet obtained true equality. If the daughters of Israel are absent from the army, then the character of the Yishuv (Jewish community in Israel) will be distorted." The mission of the Nahal Brigade is to ensure border and settlement security. By 2004, approximately 450 women were in combat units. Those recruited for combat units are required to serve thirty months rather than the twenty-one months required of non-combat female recruits.

PRIMARY SOURCE

SOLDIERS IN THE MIXED GENDER IDF KARAKUL COMBAT INFANTRY BRIGADE COMPLETE THEIR BASIC TRAINING

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

From 1950 through the 1990s, women in the Israeli Defense Force were relegated to instructor positions. Women served in non-combat related roles, conducting most of the training and served in the Mossad—the Israeli intelligence service. However, since the 1995 amendment of the Defense Service Law, female soldiers can also serve in combat status in mixed-gender units, such as artillery, anti aircraft corps in the Surface to Air Missiles (SAM) elements, Combat Engineering corps in the Atomic Biological Chemical (ABC) unit, military Police (Sachlav)—stationed in the Occupied Territories, usually in Hebron, in the border police, as air crew including fighter pilots, and as naval officers.

The presence of women in combat brigades and units has not been without controversy. In 2003, a report commissioned by the Israeli General Staff rec-ommended that women should be excluded from combat related fields. The study determined that women can safely carry around forty percent of their body weight, compared to men who are able to carry about fifty-five percent of their body weight. As women, on average, weigh thirty-three pounds less than men, men can usually carry forty-four pounds more than women. In addition, the amount of oxygencarrying hemoglobin in the blood of men is usually up to ten percent higher than those found in women. This limits the amount of physical training possible for women. The study found that men could be trained on marches up to fifty-five miles, compared to women, who could train on marches up to thirty-two miles. The physicians that completed the study recommended that women be barred from front-line infantry units, tank crews, artillery units, and as combat engineers with heavy equipment. The physicians offered no objections to women serving in light infantry units along peacetime borders (such as the Karakal unit), in anti-aircraft missile units, as air force pilots, or as naval officers.

Also in 2003, at a graduation for the Karakal (or Caracal) company, the company's platoon commander was a woman, Sergeant Annabelle. After leading her company through the training she was named "Best Platoon Commander." Upon her graduation she stated, "The exams I had to pass in order to get into the company were both physical and psychotechnic [a test that measures logic and intelligence] … Boys and girls in the mixed company undergo exactly the same training. Girls carry stretchers and water cans as well as their weapons during training. Some girls even have to help boys who find the training exercises difficult. I am very happy with the level of equality in the company; the girls here prove their worth."

FURTHER RESOURCES

Web sites

Israeli Defense Force. "I Am Thrilled That the IDF Has Given Me the Opportunity to Give of Myself." 〈http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/〉 (accessed March 25, 2006).

Jewish Virtual Library. "Women and Special Forces." 〈http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/womidf.html〉 (accessed March 25, 2006).

Mahal 2000. "IDF Background information." 〈http://www.mahal2000.com/information/background/content.htm#women〉 (accessed March 25, 2006).

Washington Times. "Israeli Women Won't See Combat." 〈http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20031020-122552-3754r.htm〉 (accessed March 25, 2006).