Despite the Israel Defense Forces approving protocols regulating service conditions for Haredi troops nearly nine months ago, a series of recent incidents has raised questions about the military’s ability to successfully integrate ultra-Orthodox soldiers into its ranks.

In February, the IDF approved a General Staff order aimed at enabling more ultra-Orthodox men to enlist without compromising their religious way of life while serving.

The order formalized a range of accommodations for Haredi troops, many of which had long been offered to religious soldiers on an ad hoc basis, including designated time for prayer, extra-stringent kosher food standards and the option to declare allegiance to the IDF rather than swear an oath, which Orthodox Jews consider sacred.

To address the thorny issue of Haredi men serving alongside women, the protocols established three distinct service tracks for ultra-Orthodox troops, offering varying degrees of gender separation, only one of which guaranteed service on a base that is exclusively male and observant.

So when soldiers in units that do not guarantee full separation made headlines late last month for excluding women from a base and from an operation, it underscored how far the military still has to go if it hopes to successfully incorporate members of a community whose religious observances often clash with some of the core principles of a diverse and integrated army.

“Since October 7, the army has established a range of programs that have better oversight [for Haredi integration],” said Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, head of the Iyun Institute for Haredi Responsibility and chairman of the board of the Netzah Yehuda Association, which supports ultra-Orthodox soldiers from the religious infantry unit during their military service.

“At the same time, it takes time,” he added. “It takes time for the army to get used to these regulations, not just the presence of them, but the fact that you have to abide by them.”

A new unit, the Hasmonean Brigade, is the only one whose protocols allow for all personnel to maintain gender separation on base.

Under the IDF’s protocols for service conditions for Haredi troops, the Netzah Yehuda Battalion is gender-segregated, but its soldiers may come into contact with women while serving at various bases where female troops also serve.

According to Channel 12 news, female soldiers from Unit 8200, the IDF’s signals intelligence unit, were temporarily barred from a military outpost in northern Israel on August 24 because a Netzah Yehudah unit was stationed there.

A day later, soldiers in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion refused to enter an armored personnel carrier for an operational mission in the Gaza Strip because a female paramedic had been attached to their force, leading the military to cancel the mission.

In a response to the second incident, the army said that “soldiers who maintain a religious lifestyle are entitled to carry out operational activity within a gender-segregated framework, except in exceptional cases.”

Growing pains of integration

Cases of alleged infringements on soldiers’ individual rights are hardly unusual in the IDF, as in any large institution.

Speaking to The Times of Israel, Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, head of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Religion and State Program, compared complaints by Haredi troops over violations of their service conditions to instances in which the military fails to accommodate soldiers with dietary restrictions.

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