Last month, 18-year-old trans woman Ella Keidar Greenberg was imprisoned in Israel for refusing to serve in the military. Now, the Refuser Solidarity Network is asking for people worldwide to send letters to Ella for support and encouragement.
In a recent interview with 972 Magazine, Greenberg connected her refusal to serve to her perspective as a trans person:
“As trans people, we challenge the same rigid, patriarchal, binary system of roles that demands we serve — these structures of men and women, fathers and mothers, that produce another generation of soldiers and workers. We disrupt that system, which is why we scare the regime so much, and are such an easy scapegoat that they keep returning to.
I think draft refusers challenge the Israeli military narrative in a similar way, because we don’t fulfil the role assigned to us. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I was drawn to questioning more and more fundamental assumptions after breaking one of the most basic ones. And yes, for me, as a trans person, I want freedom for myself and for everyone. I’m not interested in an “equal right” to oppress others [by serving in the military] or a clear-cut entry pass into the existing system — to be in the state’s ranks instead of resisting it.”
https://www.972mag.com/ella-keidar-greenberg-israeli-military-refusal/
The Refuser Solidarity Network has released a Google Form to send letters to Ella in prison:
Resisting Transphobia in Edinburgh 