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Feb 5, 2014
IDF Officer promoted despite saying she hates Haredim
One of the big items of the day, on the Haredi news radio stations is an army officer who was recently promoted.
This officer was overheard a few months ago saying really nasty things about Haredim. She had said she hates haredim and she hopes they die. Very nasty and inappropriate. At the time she was sent to some sort of disciplinary board and was punished in some way.
It was recently discovered that this officer has been promoted to a new post.
The question is, is this promotion ok, or should she not be promoted because of what she had said a few months ago?
On the one hand, what she said is very problematic. If a haredi soldier should pass through her authority, would she treat him fairly, respectably, like any other soldier or would she be biased against him? Maybe such a person should not be in a position of authority.
If she had said something similar about Arabs, or about Ethiopians, or Sefardim, would she be tossed from the army or would promotions be curtailed? Was this just a slap on the wrist because she "only" said it about haredim?
On the other hand,.who cares what her personal opinion is? It is not relevant to her work. If one cannot show that she has been unfavorably biased against haredi soldiers under her authority, why should she be punished for what is just a personal opinion, reprehensible as it may be? If she is a good soldier, who cares about her personal opinions?
I don't know. My inclination is to say that I don't care about her personal opinion, as long as she has not acted on it in the capacity of her job. In an army of tens of thousands of soldiers, there will surely be some who hate Haredim, some who hate Secular, some who hate Sefardim, some who hate Arabs, some who hate Ethiopians, some who hate Americans, some who hate Japanese, etc. Should they all be punished for their personal opinions? As long as it was not acted upon, who cares? But she is in a position of authority. She should be smart enough to not say such things. Maybe she does mistreat soldiers whom she has a bias against.
What do you think?
This officer was overheard a few months ago saying really nasty things about Haredim. She had said she hates haredim and she hopes they die. Very nasty and inappropriate. At the time she was sent to some sort of disciplinary board and was punished in some way.
It was recently discovered that this officer has been promoted to a new post.
The question is, is this promotion ok, or should she not be promoted because of what she had said a few months ago?
On the one hand, what she said is very problematic. If a haredi soldier should pass through her authority, would she treat him fairly, respectably, like any other soldier or would she be biased against him? Maybe such a person should not be in a position of authority.
If she had said something similar about Arabs, or about Ethiopians, or Sefardim, would she be tossed from the army or would promotions be curtailed? Was this just a slap on the wrist because she "only" said it about haredim?
On the other hand,.who cares what her personal opinion is? It is not relevant to her work. If one cannot show that she has been unfavorably biased against haredi soldiers under her authority, why should she be punished for what is just a personal opinion, reprehensible as it may be? If she is a good soldier, who cares about her personal opinions?
I don't know. My inclination is to say that I don't care about her personal opinion, as long as she has not acted on it in the capacity of her job. In an army of tens of thousands of soldiers, there will surely be some who hate Haredim, some who hate Secular, some who hate Sefardim, some who hate Arabs, some who hate Ethiopians, some who hate Americans, some who hate Japanese, etc. Should they all be punished for their personal opinions? As long as it was not acted upon, who cares? But she is in a position of authority. She should be smart enough to not say such things. Maybe she does mistreat soldiers whom she has a bias against.
What do you think?
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She should not have been promoted. In fact, I would borderline say that she should have been dishonorably discharged from the IDF. Even if you harbor ill will and nasty thoughts toward a segment of society, you do not speak those thoughts aloud. And that goes doubly for an officer in the armed forces (of any country).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mark.
DeleteI think that Rafi is basically correct when he says, "I don't care about her personal opinion, as long as she has not acted on it in the capacity of her job"; but the public nature of her remarks, and her having received disciplinary board punishment, indicates that she is not professional enough to merit promotion, and perhaps should even be relieved of her present duties in the army.
Even if she was "overheard", she should not have been making such remarks in any place where she could have been overheard. If she felt that she had to make such hateful remarks, she should have kept those remarks to her family and friends in private civilian conversations - not doing so indicates a lack of professionalism on her part. This leads me to suspect that even in her job she sometimes acts based upon this hateful attitude of hers, and that is certainly reason not to promote her, and even to dismiss her from her present position.
All of this opinion of mine is, of course, contigent on the assumption that the report we have heard of her behavior is an accurate one.
You guys are completely falling for the siege mentality of the hareidi radio station. This is not a story except if you have an agenda of rationalizing not participating in society based upon the false premise that everybody hates you.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right that that is the attitude of the Chareidi radio station, but that doesn't justify the reported bigotry of the officer.
DeleteIn my opinion only if you can prove that the story has been reported in a very distorted fashion, do you have a claim that the whole thing "is not a story except if you have an agenda of rationalizing not participating in society based upon the false premise that everybody hates you."
If the report we have on the officer's behavior is true, I certainly feel that there is justification for not promoting her, and possibly for relieving her of her duties altogether.
Catriel Lev
Ramat Bet Shemesh