The inclusion of openly gay and lesbian soldiers in the Israeli military has not undermined combat
readiness, unit cohesion or military preparedness, according to a U.S. university study released on Thursday.

The study is the most comprehensive analysis in English of homosexuality in the Israeli defence forces, said author Aaron Belkin, director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Belkin and co-author Melissa Levitt of ELM Research Associates, a non-partisan research firm in Berkeley, California, said their study indicated that, “military performance did not decline” following a 1993 decision to allow avowed homosexuals to serve in the defence forces.

“In this country, the military ban is based on the idea that gays undermine performance and cohesion. The experience of foreign militaries shows that there is no evidence for this position,” Belkin said on Thursday.

The United States and Turkey are the only members of NATO that still ban people who are openly homosexual from serving in their armed forces.

Britain ended its ban in January after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that it was a violation of European human rights treaties to discharge military personnel because of sexual orientation.