The Israel Defense Forces spokesman expressed support Monday for ordering the removal of photos of same-sex families from the bulletin board of an army base in the north, saying the pictures were not in "the spirit of the IDF."

Army Radio reported Monday morning that an Education Corps noncom on the base, who had hung up pictures of different types of families to mark Family Day last week, was asked to take them down because they included pictures of gay and lesbian families. According to the soldier, her superior officer stressed that the content was controversial and thus could not be displayed on the base.

In response to the report, the IDF Spokesman said, “The education bulletin boards in the IDF are meant to convey content derived from the spirit of the IDF. The bulletin boards located in the public military domain are meant to display only content regarding the IDF and state heritage, Israeli geography, education and current events, in accordance with the areas of educational content dealt with by the IDF and with the approval of those responsible for them.

"In this case there was a local initiative whose contents did not conform to those rules, which is why a directive was issued to remove them. It did not stem from political reasons, as was claimed.”