IDF in religious promotion row
THE IDF’S decision not to promote a prominent religious officer has led to accusations of discrimination against senior religious officers.
Brigadier General Ofer Winter, who is currently the chief of staff of the IDF’s Central Command, was passed over for promotion to lead one of two regular divisions, a key stepping stone on the path to the IDF’s main decisionmaking body, the General Staff.
The decision was taken despite an impressive CV commanding elite units in battle.
Such appointments do not usually attract much political or media attention, but Brigadier Winter has been a prominent figure since a controversial letter he wrote to his troops before they entered battle in Gaza in 2014.
“History has chosen us to spearhead the fighting against the terrorist ‘Gazan’ enemy which abuses, blasphemes and curses the God of Israel’s forces,” he told the Givati infantry brigade. His remarks were criticised by politicians for their religious-nationalist tones. Brigadier Winter’s superiors were notable by their silence.
The soldiers were subsequently involved in the “Black Friday” incident near Rafah in which at least 40 Palestinians were killed by artillery called in after a Givati soldier was snatched in a Hamas ambush.
Since that incident, Brigadier Winter has been promoted from the rank of colonel but not to one of the key positions that usually indicate being on track to full general and a seat on the General Staff.
Religious commentators and politicians have accused Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot of blocking his promotion and that of other senior religious officers.
They have noted that, despite a steep rise over the past two decades in the number of religious officers at the lower levels of the field command — around 40 per cent of new infantry officers are observant — there currently is not even one openly religious Major General on the General Staff.
Brigadier Winter is, like hundreds of officers, a graduate of Eli, a religious pre-military academy, whose rabbis have opposed the integration of women in IDF combat roles and lectures by LGBT activists to cadets on the correct attitude to gay soldiers.
An IDF spokesman said commanders were appointed “in a professional and objective manner by the chief of staff with the participation of the members of the General Staff.”