Dozens protested in Tel Aviv on Sunday calling on the Education Ministry to protect the rights of transgender youth to go to school without fearing for their well-being.
The demonstration was sparked by reports in the Israeli media that a 15-year-old transgender girl in Ashdod hasn’t attended school for half a year since being attacked by classmates.
The school authorities denied they ignored the special needs of the student and claimed she is provocative and dismissive towards the teachers, Haaretz reported.
Activists from the NGO Ma'avarim, devoted to to help transgender people in Israeli society, held posters giving the Ministry a failing grade in dealing with transgender people.
Jewish law usually sees gender as being determined by the biological condition people are born, which can not be changed by sex change operations as they don’t transform the entire person into another gender.Instead, they re-construct existing organs, which Jewish law regards as a form of castration when perfumed on males.
Religious Jewish society currently tends to view transgender people as mentally ill and treats them with the same compassion the sick deserve in the sense of visiting them and offering them help.