The Trans Teen Imprisoned for Refusing to Join the IDF

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein

Matt Bernstein

Society & Culture, News Commentary, News

4.9 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Yona Roseman is 19. In two weeks, the Israeli government is imprisoning her for refusing to join Israel's military, for which service is required by all Israeli Jewish teenagers. Because she is transgender, Yona anticipates she’ll be kept in solitary confinement for 22 hours per day. She’s been brutalized by cops who hurl slurs at her despite Israel’s alleged status as a safe haven for LGBTQ people. Ahead of her imprisonment, Yona joins us to talk about the reality of Israel’s treatment of queer people, the way Israel intentionally endangers LGBTQ Palestinians, and why prison and expulsion from mainstream society are prices she’s willing to pay. Listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Thanks to today’s sponsors! Get an exclusive 60% on Incogni! https://incogni.com/fruity Start managing your money better and cancel unwanted expenses at https://www.rocketmoney.com/fruity. Send letters to imprisoned refusers: https://linktr.ee/Meaarvot Find me on Instagram. Find A Bit Fruity on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	In one sentence, why should people refuse to serve in the Israeli army?
0:04.5	Because there's a genocide and you don't enlist into an army that's committing a genocide.
0:09.5	Hello, hello, and welcome back to A Bit Fruity.
0:13.3	Ever since the Nakba in 1948, when Zionists violently expelled Palestinians from their land to create the state of Israel.
0:23.0	Israel has had conscription or required military service for every Jew who lives there when they turn 18.
0:30.4	It's like a military draft, only the draft literally never ends.
0:35.0	As of 2022, the minimum service time for men in the Israeli defense forces,
0:39.9	or the IDF, is two years and eight months. The minimum service for women is two years.
0:46.7	The IDF plays a huge role in Israeli society. I know Jews I grew up with in New Jersey and New York, who, as teenagers, went on
0:57.4	birthright, the fully funded propaganda vacation to Israel meant to spiritually connect the Jewish
1:03.6	diaspora to land that Palestinians still cannot return to. And then they literally
1:08.8	uprooted their lives in New Jersey or New York and moved to
1:12.7	Israel to serve in the military. I know. It's crazy. Refusal to fulfill your military service
1:19.5	requirements comes with punishments, namely jail time. Those sentences will range, and the
1:25.9	Israeli government has a practice of continuous imprisonment
1:28.9	until young people submit to their military service.
1:32.0	There's also social consequences.
1:34.4	Refusing military service out of protest, especially for the sake of Palestinian life,
1:39.4	is deeply unpopular in Israel.
1:41.8	A teenager who does this may be cut off from their families, their friends,
1:46.0	their support systems, and Israeli society. But as more Israeli teenagers come of age during
1:51.7	Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians, those are sacrifices that more and more of them are
	...

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