Women of the Israeli Army

[qos]

I just stumbled across a fasciating website: Rachel Papo: Serial Number 3817131

Rachel Papo is an Israeli who was born in 1970 in Columbus, Ohio but was raised in Israel. She began photographing as a teenager and attended a renowned fine-arts high-school in Haifa, Israel. At age eighteen she served in the Israeli Air Force as a photographer. These two intensive years of service inspired her current photographic project titled after her own number during service -- Serial No. 3817131.

I know women have been soldiers for centuries, but I don't often see images of young women carrying fully-functional weapons around as part of their daily routine. I find many of these images both stunning and disturbing.

Like so many soldiers in this world, they seem far too young to be doing what they do.

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

The odd thing is that people think of the Israeli military as well gender integrated, but actually the US military is the most gender integrated military I know of (significantly more than the Israeli military). For all of the many ills of the US military (or any military for that matter) its one of the more gender integrated portions of the US.

[coen.livejournal.com]

Yes, the pictures are disturbing. Not so much because they are women, but because they look so young and so vulnerable.
Here and there I see a guy in the picture, and they look young and vulnerable too.
And yet this is one of the most dangerous and deadliest armies in the world.
It's weird to think that some of those people may have died the day after the picture was taken. Or they may have killed people. Or both.

War is weird. Those pictures show that without actually showing the war.

[rebeccax.livejournal.com]

I've known a couple of people who served in the Israeli army. One of which was a woman. Service in mandatory for all 18 years olds who want to remain in the country. Although I hear it's easy to get a desk job if you want it, especially for women.

Thanks for the link. I want to spend more time with those images. There's something disturbing about the weapons because they seem to be regarded so casually. And I like the shots that are so gender-bending. Plenty to think about.

[iswari.livejournal.com]

When I first arrived in Jerusalem, I was taken aback by the (on- and off-duty) military presence everywhere, but I soon got used to it. A friend of mine was a commander in the Israeli Air Force. She did not have any traumatic experiences, but her husband was in the IDF special forces, diffusing landmines. He saw his best friend blown up right in front of him and still suffers PTSD.

[athenian-abroad.livejournal.com]

Nice work. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.