In a Facebook post that caused an uproar on the Internet this week, parents of female lookouts in the IDF's 636th Battalion accused base officers of sexually harassing their daughters.
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"Throughout their service and in years prior, the lookouts at the Border Police base, the 636th Battalion of the Menashe Brigade, have encountered an aggressive and violent environment that excludes women and imposes on them humiliating and disrespectful rules," the post said.
The parents went on to describe repeated instances of abuse, including female soldiers being banned from the dining room, officers singling out and publicly humiliating some of them, and even demanding that soldiers leave the hall before finishing their meal.
The post also stated that when new recruits arrive, they are warned to stay away from the female lookouts, who are described as "lesbians who will accuse them of harassment and get them thrown out."
The most distressing instance, the parents continued, was when one of the lookouts was sexually assaulted by a fellow soldier.
"After a complaint was filed against him, and promises [were made] that she would never see him again, the same soldier returned to stay at the base and walked around freely," they wrote.
According to the parents, the female soldiers appealed to the base command for help, to no avail. They said their daughters felt like outsiders at their own base.
"How can it be that we send our daughters to protect the country in one of the IDF's most difficult positions, yet no one protects them?" the letter concluded.
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement that it "views any harm [done] to female and male IDF soldiers with severity," and said that the brigade's deputy commander had arrived at the base to speak to the lookouts, as well as the Border Police commander.
As for the dining room incident, the statement said, the matter would be investigated in depth, as will the rest of the allegations of female soldiers being subjected to degrading treatment.
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