The V-neck T-shirts IDF combat soldiers customarily purchase upon finishing training courses may be getting a massive overhaul. 

Brigadier General Rachel Tevet Weisel, the Women’s Affairs adviser to the IDF Chief of Staff, sent a letter to IDF soldiers on Sunday demanding they refrain printing shirts that may be construed as sexist or chauvinistic. 

“Lately offensive shirts have been printed with violent sexual characteristics which demean women, men, and the symbols of the army and the country,” Tevet Weisel charged. 

The adviser gave examples of a shirt produced by the Combat Engineering Corps which depicts a “blatant sexual act,” as well as a shirt featuring a caricature of a woman on her knees with the words, “Did you think they raped you?”

“The aforementioned shirts are part of a wider problem of sexually abusive shirts which refer to women with contempt from internal humor,” she continued. “These shirts are not appropriate for IDF soldiers or any entity that respects itself.” 

“Some argue these ‘humorous’ shirts are not harmful, but writing that ridicules rape or treats women as objects, labeling them to be demeaned or ridiculed, can lead to sexual assault,” Tevet Weisel argued. 

Noting that printing such shirts is the initiative of soldiers and not under the auspices of the Israeli army, Tevet Weisel stressed “there are other ways to preserve the dignity and image of the IDF.”

She urged unit commanders to “condemn” soldiers wearing shirts with offensive messages and do everything in their power to “eradicate this phenomenon.”