Gali Nishri is a marathon runner. Service in an elite military unit runs in her family and she wants nothing more than to serve in the Shayetet 13 commando of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the equivalent of the US Navy SEALs. Mika Klieger successfully completed a tryout for IDF naval officers’ training, but she is eyeing service in the infantry’s Golani commando. Omer Sariya, a bookworm inspired by the exploits of Hannah Senesh, the woman parachuted by the British into Yugoslavia during World War II to assist anti-Nazi forces, dreams of serving in the IDF paratrooper’s commando. Mor Lidani has her sights set on serving in the IDF’s elite counterterrorism Duvdevan commando.

The four youths, cadets in a pre-military academy, petitioned Israel’s top court May 20, demanding that the IDF summon women for tryouts to its elite special operations units just as it does men, in the name of full equality.

“We are not asking for any special treatment. We want the women tested according to the exact same criteria applied to men. If they pass, they serve,” Attorney Yinor Bertental told Al-Monitor. “We specifically want them called for tryouts conducted according to set criteria so that the army cannot wriggle out of allowing them to serve if they pass.”

Bertental knows what he is talking about. In 2019, he petitioned the Supreme Court on behalf of two female soldiers who had successfully completed rigorous training to become tank crewmembers but were not allowed to serve in that capacity. In January 2020, the court rejected that petition, citing a decision by IDF Chief Aviv Kochavi to continue testing the integration of women as tank fighters.