Comes after gender stereotype letter from Shin Bet head's wife

IDF removes clip of Passover song slammed as ‘medley of contempt’ for women in military

Tune featured in army rabbinate’s Haggadah celebrates reservist’s wife who loads groceries as her husband loads artillery; IDF says its publication did not follow guidelines

The IDF has taken down the music video of an original Passover song that was included in the army rabbinate’s Hagaddah that critics said consigned women to the home and neglected their contributions in the military.

The furor over the Passover song came days after criticism within the Shin Bet over a letter from the spouse of the security agency’s chief, David Zini, to “the wives of security personnel,” which was seen to reinforce gender stereotypes.

The song, titled Notnim Yadayim (“Lending Hands”), was written from the point of view of an IDF reservist who left his wife at home, and mostly comprises couplets such as “I load a cannon, you load groceries”; “I give out orders, you give out hugs”; and “I toss a grenade, you toss out the fear.”

The IDF Rabbinate also released a music video portraying scenes described in the song, but removed it on Thursday, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

The song was written by author Racheli Moshkovitz, who is married to a reservist. It was included in this year’s edition of the rabbinate’s Passover Haggadah, the text that accompanies the Seder meal on the week-long holiday’s first night, which was marked on April 1.

In a statement, the IDF said that the song was written by “a private party” and reflected only a “personal experience.”

“Its inclusion in the army Haggadah and promotion via official channels was not done according to guidelines, and the issue has been investigated,” the IDF said. The military added that it works “to preserve a respectful service environment” for soldiers “from all parts of Israeli society.”

Secularist and feminist activists slammed the music video and the inclusion of the song in the IDF Haggadah.

The Secular Forum called the music video “sick” and, referring to Jewish ritual law, said the lyrics showed “what the place of women is in a halacha state run by the Hardal,” referring to the Orthodox nationalist camp.

MK Yorai Lahav Hertzanu, a member of the opposition Yesh Atid party who chairs the Knesset’s informal LGBTQ caucus, said in a letter to Defense Minister Israel Katz and top IDF officers that the lyrics are “a medley of contempt, dismissal and erasure of women and LGBTQ” that “spits in the face of tens of thousands of women who serve the State of Israel.”

Responding to the removal of the music video from social media, Moran Zer Katzenstein, leader of the Bonot Alternativa (“Building an Alternative”) women’s protest movement, said it was “good that the army took down the clip,” and added: “I expect the army to disavow the release and clarify that these are not values it agrees with.”

The number of women in combat roles, including from the national religious community, has swelled to over 20 percent of Israel’s fighting force over the past decade, according to IDF figures.

At the same time, the military has promoted the expansion of gender-segregated frameworks to accommodate ultra-Orthodox soldiers, and a recent conservative campaign has called to remove women from the army outright.

‘A link in the chain of the women of Israel’

The furor came just days after Naomi Zini, wife of the Shin Bet chief, also sparked criticism after sending a letter addressed to “the wives of the organization’s personnel,” despite roughly half of its members being women, the Kan public broadcaster reported on Tuesday.

“Like you, I have come to carry the burden of Israel’s security, shoulder-to-shoulder with my husband. I join you – those who have chosen this path for years,” Zini reportedly wrote, describing herself as “a link in the chain of the women of Israel across generations.”

She was quoted praising the role of women in supporting the home front, writing that they “cling to life… and put our homes and nation on the path of revival that we are only beginning to realize after two thousand years of exile.”

The letter drew pushback from the agency’s gender equality commissioner, who said it contained “problematic elements in quite a few respects.”

The official, who goes unnamed in the media because she is a Shin Bet employee, said the framing “ignores and effectively excludes a large group of female employees and managers,” whose male partners support them in carrying out their roles in safeguarding Israel’s security.

The gender equality official also criticized the exclusion of non-married partners and same-sex couples, adding that “women in 2026 are much more than joy and running the household.”

While acknowledging the letter’s intent to express support during wartime, the commissioner said that “the way it was conveyed caused hurt to quite a few people along the way.”

David Zini is a self-described “messianic” who studied at the ultraconservative Har Hamor Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which is led by Rabbi Zvi Yisrael Tau, the spiritual leader of the far-right, anti-LGBTQ Noam party.