TEL AVIV – Two IDF soldiers who completed a course in the armored corps petitioned the Supreme Court on Thursday demanding the right for women to serve as tank crew members.

“The IDF of 2020 discriminates against women, just because they are women,” the petition by Osnat Levi, Noga Shina and their officer, Afik Shema, said.

The women argued that since they completed a pilot program of all-women tank commanders, they were qualified to be tank drivers.

It was the second such petition against the IDF’s policy of barring women from the armored corps. In September, Or Abramson and Maayan Halbershtat, 19-year-old women from Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Karnei Hashomron respectively, appealed to the court to allow them to serve as tank crew members when their draft begins in March.

They demanded that the military change its regulations barring women from  serving as tank drivers, gunners, radio operators and commanders.

Levi and Shina’s petition was filed against Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the IDF and the State of Israel. It said that barring women from front line combat constitutes a significant violation of equal rights.

The all-female pilot program ended in June 2018 and was lauded as a success. “The training process was a success, from both an instructional and an operational perspective. The soldiers achieved all the goals set for them,” Lt. Col. Benny Aharon, the head of command training in the Armored Corps, said at the time.

Women’s ability to serve as tank crew members in the IDF has never been questioned. The implementation is what has been less than satisfactory (Supplied).

Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Gadi Eisenkot, who launched the program, was quoted by Haaretz as saying the program “was a success that proved, beyond a doubt,” that women were able to serve as combat soldiers in the armored corps.

Nevertheless, all-female tank crews never materialized.

Eisenkot said “manipulation and outside agendas” of “various officials” were to blame.

“There was a desire on the part of various officials to hurt me, or the army, to thwart the integration of women combat soldiers” in tank crews, Eisenkot said, adding that “from the moment the pilot program was made public, heavy pressure was brought to bear on me by people outside the army not to approve the integration of women” in tanks.

Former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi weighed in on the issue Thursday saying that there was no reason to object to women’s ability to be tank crew members.

“Wherever women can meet the professional demands of the job, there is no reason not to appoint them,” he said. “It is not a matter of gender but a professional requirement and the operational need. If women can fulfill it like men and the mission is not hurt, I don’t see it as a problem.”