Women serve in the Zionist occupation army under mandatory military service. The Israeli army was the first army to require women to serve, a requirement enacted through Israeli law in 1956, in addition to reserve duty.
Women constitute one-third of the Israeli army's forces, giving them paramount importance and making their presence a fundamental factor in its strength. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak abolished what was called the Women's Corps, which was dedicated to women within the army to look after their affairs and needs. However, in appreciation of the work done by women, the army integrated them into the military branches such as the Air Force, artillery, infantry, and all its security and administrative departments. This decision was considered by Israeli women's organizations to be a historic decision and an official recognition of the role of women and female soldiers within the army. However, on the other hand, a survey issued by the Israeli army acknowledged the corruption that exists within the Israeli military establishment between men and women, and said: 20% of female Israeli soldiers in the occupation army are subjected to harassment and sexual harassment during their military service by their male colleagues and those in charge of them in the army. In a survey in which 1,100 female soldiers participated, including 64 officers performing regular service in the occupation army, for the second year in a row, 81 of the female soldiers said that they were subjected to assault and harassment through sexual innuendos that offended them, and 69% said that the harassment included asking them to commit adultery and receiving disturbing suggestions. The survey indicates that more than half of the female soldiers who experienced sexual harassment did not file complaints or take any action against their harassers. It also revealed that 20% of them filed complaints with their commanding officers, and some even took their complaints to professional authorities. The Manpower Planning Authority at the Ministry of Labor recently published data indicating that 16.4% of female soldiers experienced sexual harassment during their military service. It appears that the occupation soldiers believe they have a right and priority to exploit female hostesses.
The Captive and Damned Woman
Amidst the varying situations of women around the world, their situation in Israel remains significantly different. Despite women reaching the highest positions, such as Prime Minister, as with Golda Meir in the 1970s, and Tzipi Livni serving as Foreign Minister, then Justice Minister, and later as party leader, the status of Israeli women remains shrouded in ambiguity and controversy. This is due to the rabbis' persistent efforts to marginalize them, contrasted with Israel's secularism, which curbs their desire to exclude women from modern life.
The rabbis base their efforts to marginalize half of society on Jewish law, which has historically diminished the status and value of women.
"If brothers live together and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the deceased must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother must go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duties of a brother-in-law to her. The firstborn son she bears will carry on the name of his deceased brother, so that his name will not be blotted out of Israel." (Deuteronomy 25:5-6)
Thus, law compels a woman to remain bound to her husband even after his death, unable to escape this constraint. Jewish law also requires a widow to marry her deceased husband's brother, and after she bears a child by him, the child is not considered to be legally related to his biological father, but rather to her deceased husband, the child's uncle. According to Sami al-Imam, a professor of Jewish studies at Al-Azhar University, this legislation is considered one of the most egregious insults against women, because Jewish law fails to protect women's rights or grant them freedom even after their husbands' deaths.
In her book, "Women Between Judaism and Islam," Dr. Laila Abu al-Majd, Professor of Talmudic Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, states that the Old Testament greatly diminished the status of women in the famous story of Eve and the serpent. Religious interpretations ("Midrashim") consider Eve to be the cause of Adam's disobedience to God, as she yielded to the serpent's temptation, leading to God's curses upon her—ten curses according to the interpretation of Rabbi Yitzhak Bravadimi. He based his ruling on Genesis 3:16 in the Old Testament, which says: "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing, and with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
The deplorable status of women continues in Jewish law. She does not inherit, cannot be divorced, and is not permitted to leave her deceased husband's home. Instead, she is obligated to marry his brother, and even if he is a child, she must wait for him.
In his book "The Kheila and the Secrets of Zionist Organizations," Fathi al-Ibyari, a specialist in Jewish studies, argues that Jewish law views Jewish women as servants who inherit but do not inherit from their husbands, treating them merely as property. For example, there is the practice of "Elibom," whereby if a husband dies without a son, his widow must marry one of his brothers to bear a son who will carry on the deceased husband's name and inherit his estate.
Regarding women leaving the home and participating in public life, the Mishnah, the oral law of the Jews, forbids women from leaving their homes. It mandates divorce and deprives a woman of her financial entitlements ("ketubah") if she leaves her house without a head covering. Furthermore, the husband is permitted to discipline his wife by beating and force to keep her at home (Bab Ketub 7/paragraph "w").
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion also considered the woman’s body to be the common property of Israel, giving her space for moral corruption. The first protocol said, “Among the Christians are people who have been led astray by wine, and their young men have become madmen of the classics and early debauchery, which our agents, teachers, servants, and heroines in the rich houses, our writers, and our women in their amusement have tempted them with. To them I add those who are called ‘women of society’ and those of their colleagues who desire corruption and luxury.”
Jewish women continued to sell their bodies because Zionism allowed them to do so. Even in modern times, we see the extent to which women have been exploited in this way. A report by Israel's Channel 2 revealed that 80% of female soldiers in Israel have been sexually harassed.
The status of women continued to deteriorate until the Middle Ages, specifically during the Jewish presence in Andalusia under Muslim rule. Jews generally enjoyed considerable freedoms, and critical movements against the Old Testament began to emerge. These movements eventually called for changing the status of women and liberating them from the constraints of Jewish law. Over time, the status of women began to improve somewhat, leading to the emergence of movements advocating for women's liberation and the rise of female writers and poets in the modern era.
Non-Existing Equality
Despite Israel's repeated claims at human rights conferences that it upholds rights and respects democracy and pluralism, the reality of Israeli society tells a different story.
In a recent survey conducted by Dr. Mina Tsemich of the Dahaf Center for Public Opinion Research on violence against women and how to deal with it within the family, 57% said that women deserve to be beaten, while 34% said that violence against women is unjust.
Adding to this crisis, the survey revealed that 59% of women believe that equality does not exist in Israeli society, while 37% believe that equality is generally present.
Israeli society is characterized by a female majority. The Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that the number of women in the occupied territories in 2002 exceeded the number of men, reaching 3,358,800 women compared to 3,282,300 men. On the cultural front, data indicates that 62% of women in society hold a high school diploma (Bagrut), while the percentage of men with this qualification is 55%. As for university degrees, the percentage of women is 56% compared to 53% of men.
Despite this, women there live in difficult social conditions. Israeli police sources indicate that the crime rate is rising. The number of murders, particularly among women, reached approximately 1,643 by the end of 2002, while by the end of 2003 it had risen to 2,759.
Dr. Rachel Ofer of the Center for Women's Studies in the occupied territories attributes this increase to the psychological stress experienced by men due to the deteriorating security and economic situation and the disintegration of the social order. She also asserts that other contributing factors include excessive alcohol and drug use.
A recent study on the situation of women there, published in early 2004 by the Schocken Institute in Tel Aviv, indicated that Jewish women in Israel suffer from violence and humiliation, especially among those who have not yet attained true Judaism. These are the women not recognized by the leading rabbis, most of whom are Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel).
This also includes those who immigrated from Eastern countries, where the "Jewishness Law" restricts many cases. Similarly, a woman who marries a Christian European is not considered Jewish, which in turn leads to her losing her citizenship and rights, as well as her right to integrate into society. All of this has led to confusion regarding women's rights and responsibilities in this society.
Another report indicated that 20% of Israelis surveyed believe the police have been successful in handling complaints of violence against women, and another 20% believe that Israeli courts are doing a good job in cases of violence against women. However, 72% of Israelis believe the Israeli police have failed to protect women and children from their husbands, and 80% believe the police do not impose appropriate penalties to deter perpetrators of violence against women.
In a related context, the Israeli Welfare Office published a report indicating that its domestic violence prevention centers treated approximately 11,000 cases of violence, including 8,000 cases of violence against women and 990 cases of violence against children.
The office noted that around 40,000 people contacted domestic violence prevention centers complaining of sexual assault, explaining that 64% of them were girls under the age of 18. The Center for Women's Studies in Israel attributes this increase to the psychological stress experienced by men due to the deteriorating security and economic situation and the collapse of the social order. It also asserts that other contributing factors include excessive alcohol and drug use.
Furthermore, Jewish women in Israel suffer from violence and humiliation, particularly among those who have not yet attained true Judaism. These are the people not recognized by the chief rabbis, most of whom are immigrants from Ethiopia (Beta Israel).
Despite Israeli women holding numerous and sensitive positions in Israeli politics and the military (Golda Meir was the first woman to serve as Prime Minister, the highest political office in Israel), statistics regarding the status of women in Israel reveal profound contradictions. While these statistics reflect progress in some areas, they also indicate setbacks in many others, despite Israeli society being predominantly female.
Women are forced to juggle work and family life, making it difficult for them to attain senior positions. This is compounded by existing wage inequalities. The situation is even more challenging for single mothers, as employers are often reluctant to hire them.
Civil society organizations in Israel have championed women's rights and established the New Israel Fund for the Defense of Women's Rights, which itself acknowledges that women in Israeli society face fundamental inequality in various spheres of life, despite their significant contributions to the economy, politics, education, and all areas of social work. Numerous institutions, social customs, traditions, and religious laws continue to weaken women and girls in schools, workplaces, and religious courts, perpetuating gender inequality. Women's wages are lower than men's, and a large number of mothers, elderly women, and women from Ethiopia or former socialist countries suffer from unemployment, poverty, health problems, and blatant violations of their basic rights. Furthermore, strict religious control over marriage and social affairs restricts women's freedom.
Many researchers and writers have pointed to some of the forms of oppression directed at Jewish women. Former minister Yossi Sarid highlighted some of the most prominent examples of the violation of women's rights in Jewish law, including: "If a man and a woman fall into a river, the man is rescued first, before the woman, for he is the one who upholds the law, while the woman is created for the home," and "In the three daily prayers, the worshipper thanks God that He did not create him a woman."
Among the ultra-Orthodox Haredim, women are considered unclean creatures, likened to dogs and pigs. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in his weekly sermon on women, stated, "A man should not walk between two women, or between two dogs, or between two pigs!"
The prayer of Jewish women at the Western Wall has long been a subject of widespread controversy between religious parties and the government. Jewish women are forbidden from practicing religious rituals because they are considered "impure" and "dirty" according to the rabbis. This led to the arrest of a Jewish woman for wearing a prayer shawl and carrying a Torah scroll. It is well known that many religious women fear walking in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem because they will be subjected to insults and spitting, even if they are dressed modestly. In the neighborhood, groups of Haredi sects, who receive their orders from their extremist rabbis, harass women and break into their homes on charges of dishonoring them, among many other acts and violations. No laws have been enacted that give them the right to control their own bodies, to be protected from violence and white slavery, or to be represented in the public sector. Family life issues such as marriage and divorce remain under the jurisdiction of religious courts, whether Jewish, Christian, Islamic, or Druze. These courts dominate women's lives and their right to manage their own affairs. For example, under these religious courts, women do not have equal opportunities to divorce as men. More than 97% of men refuse to divorce their wives and physically abuse them. Despite these statistics, the increasing rates of violence, and the continuous decline in women's status—data that, despite its seriousness and threat to national and social security, is alarming—successive Israeli governments have failed to make genuine efforts to combat violence against women. Addressing this issue has not been prioritized, to the point that women in Israel began questioning the situation by 2013.
A Weapon of Vice and Depravity
Money, influence, and women have been among the primary weapons used by Israelis—and continue to be—in establishing and building their state. In this context, they have employed all means and methods, both legitimate and illegitimate, in their war and in founding their nation.
Among the most prominent illicit means was the use of women and sex. This is confirmed by an Israeli study recently published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in which its author, Daniela Reich, revealed that the Zionist movement, during the British Mandate in Palestine, established a special apparatus comprising thousands of Jewish women (hostesses) whose sole purpose within this apparatus was to entertain and provide recreation for British and other Allied soldiers who landed on the country's beaches during World War II. This was part of the Zionist leadership's efforts to gain the support of these countries for its colonial project and facilitate its implementation on Palestinian land.
This role has not ceased to this day, though it has changed in form and name. Israeli sources have revealed that the Mossad intelligence agency relies heavily on women in its operations, with women comprising twenty percent of its employees. Between the hostesses during the British Mandate and the women of the Mossad, Jewish women played a role in carrying out Palmach military operations, with women in some units exceeding 30% of the total personnel. Some of them participated in a number of military operations, and today the Mossad, the intelligence arm of the Israeli army, relies heavily on women to carry out espionage operations and bring down agents through the use of vice and seduction. The majority of agents who fall into the hands of the resistance have admitted that sex is the most effective means used by the Mossad to bring them down, and thus it is clear how far this entity’s corruption and danger have gone.
Summary of the Israeli Research: Daniela Reich's master's thesis, submitted to the Department of Land of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa, explores how prostitution and solicitation were organized and incorporated into the organizational structure of Zionist institutions. The research indicates that approximately one hundred thousand British, Australian, and other foreign soldiers served in Mandatory Palestine during the 1930s and 40s, a period that coincided with World War II. These soldiers, during their "combat rest," sought opportunities for pleasure and entertainment. Fortunately for them, they found little difficulty in finding such opportunities, as some five thousand Jewish women, at the behest and encouragement of Zionist institutions like the Jewish Agency, were readily available to receive and host these soldiers with great hospitality.
Reich goes on to note that Tel Aviv experienced a significant boom in the oldest profession (prostitution) during the 1940s, due to the large number of foreign soldiers stationed in the city, on the one hand, and the economic hardship faced by new immigrants and daughters of impoverished Jewish families, on the other.
British military leaders were particularly alarmed by the increasing number of their soldiers contracting sexually transmitted diseases in Tel Aviv (250 cases). This prompted the British military authorities in 1945 to open a special medical institute on Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv to conduct examinations for soldiers who frequented brothels.
The research adds that the political department of the Jewish Agency was the implementing and directing body for hospitality affairs in the Jewish settlement project. The Agency tasked other institutions, such as the Zionist intelligence service and the Jewish National Fund, with carrying out such activities. Over time, these cafes became a space where young women in the Jewish settlement community could achieve independence and freedom of choice—freedom to control their own spirits and bodies, and to choose with whom they went out for pleasure and enjoyment. According to Reich, among the conditions set for selecting hostesses who worked in the clubs were that they be young girls or young women, speak English at an acceptable level, and not be obligated to serve in the British army. Applicants were also required to submit an application accompanied by three photographs and personal details.
Reich says in this context that there was a tendency to lump everyone together. All the young women who volunteered in hospitality services for the future Jewish state were lumped together with prostitutes and women who had entered into mixed marriages (with non-Jews). Reich argues that the leaders of the Jewish settlement community sought to exploit these relationships with foreign soldiers for propaganda purposes, promoting the Zionist project in the Land of Israel, hoping these soldiers would become ambassadors of goodwill upon their return home.
Regarding the reasons for ignoring and concealing the activities of the "Jewish Hostesses" program until now, Reich suggests that it is perhaps a secret that should not be discussed. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the issue, with its implications of prostitution and mixed marriages, makes it a topic Israeli society prefers to forget, especially after all these years.
Although the research focuses on this dark period of corruption, the system of female flight attendants has not ceased, but has changed in form, titles, organization, gender, and recruitment in service of the Israeli state. One such example is the reliance on Israeli women in intelligence work, as revealed by Israeli sources in a report published by the newspaper Maariv. The report states that Mossad recruits Israeli women to use them to entice military and political leaders in several countries hostile to Israel in order to obtain military and security information of interest to Israel.
The Israeli sources confirmed that female recruits in the intelligence service have succeeded over the years in carrying out important military operations for Israel, including the assassination of the Palestinian leader Hassan Salameh, the theft of secrets from the Iranian embassy in Cyprus and Hezbollah offices in Switzerland, and the kidnapping of the Israeli expert, Vanunu, from Italy to occupied Palestine. Mossad, the intelligence arm of the Israeli army, relies heavily on women to conduct espionage operations and recruit agents through the use of depravity and seduction. Most of the agents captured by the resistance have confessed that sex is the most effective tool Mossad uses to entrap them and prevent them from renouncing their collaboration with the occupation. Israeli female agents seduce the agents and then engage in immoral acts, after which Mossad operatives photograph them in compromising situations, which are then used to blackmail them if they refuse orders.
Religious Jews do not object to female agents engaging in sexual activity to entrap the enemy; on the contrary, they consider it a form of worship and a service to the homeland. Numerous accounts recount Mossad's use of women to achieve its objectives and their participation in assassinations.
