Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday expressed his support for 16 Israel Defense Forces soldiers who were jailed for thwarting an operational mission in Gaza over their refusal to enter an armored personnel carrier with a female paramedic, drawing condemnation from opposition politicians, who accused him of undermining Israel’s security.
In a post to X, the far-right minister said the Givati Brigade soldiers had the right to “safeguard their values and beliefs” while serving in the military, and insisted that they “have the full backing” of their religious Zionist rabbis.
“I prayed and hoped with all my heart that the IDF would come to its senses and prevent the need for my intervention, but since that did not happen — as the leader of Religious Zionism, I cannot sit idly by,” wrote the minister, referring to his political party.
“It’s a real shame that the IDF is choosing, out of mistaken judgment, to antagonize the public that serves and contributes the most, in a way that will only cause damage and undermine the public’s trust in the IDF,” he wrote.
The Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion, in which the soldiers serve, is not an ultra-Orthodox unit, and therefore the soldiers serving there, under the IDF’s protocols, may have to serve alongside women.
