Violent clashes as Israelis protest joining army
Hundreds of Israelis have rallied in Jerusalem al-Quds to protest active duty in the military, and the regime’s arresting of around 40 people, including the grandson of a famous rabbi, for dodging draft.
The Sunday rallies featured considerable violence on the part of both the protesters and the security forces.
The grandson of the grand rabbi of the Toldot Avraham Yitzhak religious community, which refers to itself as an “anti-Zionist” sect, was detained two weeks ago by the military police in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.
The demonstrations saw rabbis giving speeches, and the protesters holding up anti-regime placards. "We're Jews and therefore will not enlist in the Zionist army," read one banner.
Footage from the demonstrations saw the police kicking, punching, and shoving the participants, using water cannons against them, bringing in cavalry, and also trying to drag them away by force, claiming they had used “exceptional violence” against the forces.
The forces made nine arrests, and two of the protesters were hospitalized with injuries.
During the protest, the office of Knesset (the Israeli Parliament)’s Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni issued a statement, saying that, following a request by Gafni to Israeli minister for military affairs Avigdor Lieberman, it had been agreed that the rabbi’s grandson and a young woman be released from a military prison, Israeli paper Ha’aretz reported. The rabbi himself also asked for the protesters to disperse.
The rallies, however, continued, with the attendants complaining that dozens still remained in jails, and protesting a decision last week by the supreme court to abrogate a law exempting the ultraorthodox men engaged in religious study from enlistment in the military.
Fearing backlash, the court has suspended the decision for one year to allow for preparations for the new arrangement.
Conscription is mandatory for both men and women in Israel, which is in a continuous war with regional countries and clashes with Palestinian residents of the occupied territories.
An internal survey by the Israeli military published earlier this month found that one in every six female troops had been sexually abused over the course of enrollment.
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The vast majority of the female soldiers surveyed said that they had been harassed more than once during their service, the Jerusalem Post reported.
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