Rinat.bas Chedva update report

Previously, the JP reported on Rinat bas Chedva, now enduring solitary confinement in an Israeli military prison, after her Jan.22 arrest over her Aug.28, '18 abandonment of the IDF, which, according to an IDF source, Gal Eliyahu, she claims was due to (1) three separate counts of sexual misconduct, by her military superior and another soldier; (2) the alleged failure of the IDF to address the problem;&(3) their internal cover up of her plight, in her view. This Sunday, she was sentenced to 41 days for fleeing the IDF.

Rinat also faces trial this Thurs., Feb.21, addressing her application to be exempted from service altogether. MK Meir Porush indicated that her case is harder, since it's after she had enlisted. However, Rinat enlisted only after being convinced by a IDF headhunter, before she realized the actual difficulties confronting religious girls (and non-religious ones as well) in the IDF (or in any military, for that matter). Her application for a religious exemption was initially rejected, despite the obvious incompatibility of any military service with issurei-arayos prohibitions, including Yichud and Lo Sik'rvu.

Moshe Lachover, previously a veteran Degel HaTorah Netanya City Councilman,  currently a Lev L'Achim official, denied the rumor that he tried to convince Rinat's father to advise her to return to the IDF. Moreover, he was unable to make any case to justify such an idea, given both Halachic and practical objections thereto. (National Religious Rabbis  prohibit military service for girls and women, under all circumstances. And, as a matter of practicality, returning to service would rob Rinat of what her advocates see as the only reliably effective incentive for the IDF to provide her an exemption, ie. broad, public pressure over her plight.)

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