Four teenage girls about to begin their military service have petitioned the High Court of Justice to order the military to open screening tests for all combat units to women, Channel 12 News reported on Tuesday.
Eighteen-year-old petitioners Mika Kliger, Mor Lidani, Gali Nishri, and Omer Saria, said they hoped Defense Minister Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi will allow all potential recruits to try out for elite commando units, regardless of their gender.
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"We're not asking that demands be changed for us – just let us try out and if we qualify, let us join the units," Lidani told Channel 12 News.
The petition, Kliger noted, was not filed "out of spite. We did it because we to contribute and volunteer [for combat service]. The military needs to see this as an opportunity for women to serve in all units."
The IDF allows women to join several combat units via three mixed-gender battalions: Caracal, a light infantry force that is made up of 70% female soldiers; the Lions of Jordan Battalion and the Bardelas Battalion.
The IDF commando canine unit, Oketz, also drafts females as combat soldiers.
But the issue of female soldiers seeing on the front line remains highly controversial in the Jewish state, where some rabbis would like to see women excluded from the IDF altogether.
Dr. Idit Shafran Gittleman, an expert on gender equality in the IDF at the Israel Democracy Institute told The Jerusalem Post that "In today's reality, in which the IDF strives to achieve gender equality, it was only a matter of time for such a petition to be filed.
"This petition, which joins others that were recently filed, creates positive pressure on IDF decision-makers to open all positions to women," she said. "A categorical denial of certain positions to applicants based on gender is inconsistent with the principle of equality."
Commenting on the petition, Labor MK Merav Michaeli tweeted, "The IDF is the last Western army in the world that screens people according to their gender and not their abilities. Let's hope the High Court makes sure the IDF stops this humiliation and waste of potential human resources."
According to a study by the IDI, the number of women combat soldiers in ground forces has increased exponentially since 2012, when they were first drafted into combat units, reaching up to 2,656 in 2017, while the percentage of female soldiers serving in clerical positions declined.
