HUMMERS are BIG buggers … certainly big enough to ensure that a driver and her male passenger don’t come into close contact.
An Israeli army Hummer
But this was not good enough for a group of Israeli army religiots who reportedly refused last week to participate in a training exercise that required them to ride in Hummers driven by female soldiers.
The incident, according to Haaretz, took place when a group of armoured corps battalion reservists from Northern Command attended a national ground troop training exercise at Tze’elim base in the south.
The Hummers are used as substitute tanks, and are driven by female soldier. The reservists act as ‘tank’ commanders.
After consultations with the training center’s rabbi and the brigade commander, a compromise was reached in which the religious soldiers who refused to ride alone with a woman driver would instead be accompanied by another male soldier.
An army document drawn up four years ago and entitled “Proper Integration” addresses the issue of religious “sensibilities” and the separation of male and female soldiers. According to the document, nothing prevents a male soldier from riding with a female soldier in a Hummer. The vehicle’s relative spaciousness, it said, means physical contact can be avoided.
According to sources in the army’s ground force operations, incidents such as the one last week at Tze’elim are not uncommon, and increasing numbers of religious soldiers are requesting a stricter separation between male and female soldiers.
However, an IDF spokesman said in response that the claim that religious soldiers refused to participate in the training because the vehicles were driven by women is baseless. All the soldiers in the battalion participated on the first day, the spokesman said. On the second day, as initially planned, 13 soldiers were released, including three religious soldiers. However, other religious soldiers continued to participate in the exercise.
Clearly someone is telling porkies …
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
July 9th, 2009 at 9:39 am
And I thought segregation was limited to the Muslim world.
Oh dear, training 'center'?
July 9th, 2009 at 10:54 am
The amount of discomfort these men feel around is shameful to the advance of human kind.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:55 am
They all believe it to some extent.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I`m sorry to say that I am not optimistic about the future at all. Just as children tend to have even more pronounced accents than their parents for some reason (although "common sense" would lead one to suppose that regional accents would gradually die out), so each succeeding generation seems to have to carry its religiosity to even greater extremes than the last. Advances in education, and the free interchange of ideas, do not seem to counteract this tendency to a sufficient degree in religious communities. Am I being over-pessimistic here?
July 9th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Well i wouldn’t get into that Hummer either. Such a monster driven by a woman?!?
@barriejohn:
Seeing how always people saw the downfall of the world coming soon, i think you are over-pessimistic (at least i certainly hope so)
July 9th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
The IDF is going to have to get serious to deal with this insubordination before it gets completely out of hand. This is insubordination and should not be negotiated. When some soldiers don't do their part to the full it places unfair and unnecessary burdens on other soldiers. What would these guys do if faced with having to help a wounded female soldier?
July 9th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Over-pessimistic? No! Those lower down the social scale and the less educated tend to breed more people like themselves. Don’t the xtians have a quotation about the meek inheriting the earth? Perhaps that should be “the stupid shall inherit the Earth”. Sorry if this sounds a bit elitist but it is a fact that the better educated have fewer children and are less religious. I too, fear for our future.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
The three religions come from the same root:
Abraham/Moses/OT BS
dessert dwelling goat headers
Hate women because the men have so little self control over their lower brain.
(which is understandable with so little brain on their shoulders)
Believe in the same basic hateful, spiteful 5yr-old, bearded sky-faerie.
I'm shocked they would let a common disgusting (probably menstruating & unclean!!!!) FEMALE
drive. I'm really surprised at their male chauvinistic ass-holery!!!
July 9th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I think we've missed the point. They aren't objecting based on religious reasons, they're just genuinely afraid to be in a vehicle with a female driver.
Every time my wife gets behind the wheel I honestly think my life is in immediate danger.
July 9th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 9th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Sadly – and depressingly – I fear you are right!
July 9th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Don`t forget that the more traditional Christians still don`t allow women to preach or have any responsibilities in the Church, and many insist that they OBEY their husbands in all things!
July 9th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
@Angela
yeah, better educated people have less children. But that has always been the case. The peasents had more children than the court and the philosophers and scientists (why, many of the greatest minds did not procreate at all).
The deduction that this leads to general stupidity, however, is simplistic and faulty. Better eductaion does not necessarily coincide with superior genes for intelligence. In fact, more educated parents produce more educated children, veen if they are adopted.
Pessimism about the future is in vogue and has been for the past 2500 years. Even Aristoteles was muttering angrily and said (translations might vary) ‘When i look at the youth which will evolve to men, i have no hope for the future’.
As for me, i’m with randall munroe: ‘All in all, the future will be okay! Except climate; we fucked that one up.’
July 9th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Children's accents are imprinted when they learn to talk -by listening to those arround them- which is why there is little chance of regional accents dying out. Unfortunately, prejudices and wacky world views are also assimilated at an early age.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Everyone " breeds " more people like themselves! Even the less better educated have less children in countries where birthcontrol it permitted . If the "stupid" i.e. poor and ignorant were better treated, better educated they too would limit their offspring and turn from religion. This is what democracy is supposed to be about – equality not elitism.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:11 am
As an ex-educator I am well aware of the reasons why children have accents. It just seems odd that theirs tend to be even MORE pronounced than their parents`. The same with prejudices – they are obviously the result of indoctrination: no one is born with them. Education is the answer, as you say, but when animals have been conditioned it is hard breaking already established patterns of behaviour!
July 10th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I am sorry for you Hieremias, but you may well be right.
Both wife and daughter are excellent drivers so I did not consider that reason.
July 11th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
This is just another example of "authorities" caving to the religious. Why don't they just tell them to live in the REAL world?