"This is just for one song that I have no control over. I'm asking you to have patience. I've suffered from this enough over the last week. My wife can't listen to all of this poppycock either. I've seen great rabbis who didn't leave the auditorium during events like these. I don't want to see anyone leaving 'by mistake'. Be patient. Whoever's having a hard time can put his head down and wait for it to be over."
Above: Colonel Ofer Winter
Controversial Orthodox IDF Commander Begrudgingly Orders Troops To Watch Performance Of Band That Included Female Musicians
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The controversial Zionist Orthodox Commander of the Givati Brigade, Colonel Ofer Winter, ordered the Zionist Orthodox soldiers who serve under him to sit in the audience and listen to a performance of the IDF’s band, even though female soldier-musicians would be performing as part of it, Ynet reported.
Winter came under withering criticism from the media and from many social critics and women’s rights activists after he forced the cancellation of what was supposed to be a performance by Israeli female pop star Sarit Hadad because he and the Orthodox soldiers who make up only a part of the soldiers in his brigade object to women singing or performing in front of men because it is banned by many interpretations of halakha (Orthodox Jewish law).
So, instead of Hadad, male pop singer Moshe Peretz performed, and did the IDF’s band that had among its performers female musicians.
Winter ordered his men to stay for the performance of the IDF band.
"This is just for one song that I have no control over. I'm asking you to have patience. I've suffered from this enough over the last week. My wife can't listen to all of this poppycock either. I've seen great rabbis who didn't leave the auditorium during events like these. I don't want to see anyone leaving 'by mistake'. Be patient. Whoever's having a hard time can put his head down and wait for it to be over,” Winter reportedly said.
"We are one special brigade that walks together and fights together. You fought like lions and we're meeting this evening for an event that isn't necessarily the end of the war. We don't choose our tasks, we do the best we can with what we have,” Winter concluded.
IDF policy forbids exclusion of female soldiers or banning females from performing their duties.
Winter’s decision to bar Hadad from performing, especially when his brigade is by no means an Orthodox one, is likely a violation of the IDF policy on gender exclusion and appears to be a violation of Israel’s Basic Law as interpreted by the High Court of Justice.
Winter is known for inserting his version of religion into the life of his brigade and being extremely disrespectful of IDF policy. Even so, the IDF has so far failed to seriously reprimand him.