Settler attack causes injuries in occupied West Bank
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, three people have been injured in an attack by Israeli settlers in the Masafer Yatta region, south of the West Bank city of Hebron.
Israeli soldiers tie up and drag Palestinians after occupied West Bank raid
This video, which has been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad unit, shows how Israeli soldiers tied up a group of Palestinians and dragged them away with a rope. This happened after a raid on the village of al-Issawiya, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli occupation forces tie and drag six Palestinians in a humiliating way through the streets of Al-Issawiya, east of occupied Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/3g4NvjxTiJ
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) March 11, 2024
Israeli opposition leader says ultra-Orthodox must serve in military
Yair Lapid is carrying on with his opposition to the military service exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews, saying the Israeli military “is stretched to the limit”. “If there is a flare-up in the north, there are not enough soldiers to manage it,” he said in reference to a potentially expanded war with Hezbollah.
“Today, there are 66,000 ultra-Orthodox youth of conscription age. That’s 105 battalions that don’t enlist,” he said in a speech posted on his accounts online. Lapid has advanced legislation – still under debate – that says those who evade military or civil service will no longer be eligible for state funding. “If they don’t enlist, they won’t get any money,” Lapid said.
This comes shortly after Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, said ultra-Orthodox Jews would leave the country en masse if they are drafted into the military.
Complaint calls for Israeli chief rabbi’s removal over conscription comments
An Israeli watchdog group says Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef “crossed every red line” when he threatened a mass exodus by ultra-Orthodox Jews if they are forced to serve in the military as it wages war on Palestinians.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel says in a statement on X that it has written to the ombudsman of the Great Rabbinical Court of Appeals to bemoan a “flagrant violation of the rules of ethics for judges” and the politicisation of this sensitive issue. The group said it demanded the court “to investigate the complaint, and if it is justified, to remove Rabbi Yosef from his position as judge” in the court.
Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Israelis could be drafted into the military if their exemptions are lifted, a move that is gaining popularity among Israeli officials.
