ISRAEL – A transgender teenager has been jailed for refusing to carry out compulsory military service in Israel. Aiden Katri was sentenced to a week in prison, where campaigners were concerned she would be housed in a male wing and left at risk of stigmatization and abuse.

The 19-year-old said she was taking a stand as a conscientious objector against the “atmosphere of fear” in her home country and could not enforce “oppression” in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Describing her upbringing in the Israeli city of Holon as “conservative”, she said she came to reject “separatism” in society and was striving for equality between religion, race, sex and gender. In a statement the day before she was imprisoned, Ms Katri said she had Israeli Arab friends who were “hated and discriminated against” and had witnessed military crackdowns on Palestinian protests in the West Bank. “Arabs and Jews live in this country as two different classes,” she added.(The Independent UK)…[+]