Zionist Regime Uses Stun Grenade Against Draft Protesters

Date: 16 April 2018 - 22:08

News ID: ۵۱۸۶۶

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Zionist troops have fired stun grenades and clashed violently with protesters rallying against conscription in the army.
The regime’s authorities describe the protesters as "ultra-Orthodox extremists" who are against military draft, arguing that their so-called religious endeavors do the regime as much service.
Conscription is mandatory for both men and women in the occupied territories, which is in a continuous war with regional countries and clashes with Palestinians in the occupied territories.
"Several hundred ultra-Orthodox extremists" joined the rally outside an enlistment office in al-Quds, The Jerusalem Post reported. The demonstration came after it became known that the military police sought to arrest a girl, who was being held in the office, it added.
"Police used stun grenades and water cannon against rioters," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP. A police statement said four officers were slightly injured in scuffles.
The protesters even object to reporting to the military. Previous rallies have seen scenes of exceptional violence, with the police tussling with the participants and dragging those blocking roads forcibly away.
The organizers vowed during one protest to "fight in every way the edict that has felled thousands in the spiritual ruin” of the Israeli military.
Last month, "ultra-Orthodox" politicians threatened to leave the ranks of Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition unless a law was passed preventing conservative youths from conscription.
The crisis was resolved with a compromise, in which Netanyahu promised to give coalition MPs freedom on how to vote on a future bill on draft exemptions.
Draft-dodging is not a new phenomenon in the Israeli-occupied territories whose occupation and settlement expansion policies are a cause for continuous conflict with Palestinians.