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Fast Forward Israeli Supreme Court Revokes Law Giving More Yeshiva Students Draft Exemptions
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a law that increased the number of draft exemptions for haredi Orthodox yeshiva students. The legislation, passed two years ago, was “unconstitutional, disproportionate, and harms equality,” the justices wrote in the majority decision, which passed 8-1. The law’s stated purpose of reducing the inequality of the burden of…
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Fast Forward Celebrating The Life Of Danny Lewin, The First Victim Of 9/11 Terror Attacks
Danny Lewin was 16 years ago today the first victim of the 9/11 attacks, when he tried to stop hijackers on one of the plans that would crash into the Twin Towers from storming the cockpit on his flight. Lewin, a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces and an MIT-trained mathematician, was working on his…
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Opinion The Writing On The Wall: Signs Of Occupation In Hebron
I was born in the ancient Palestinian city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank in a home around the corner from the entrance to Shuhada Street, the main thoroughfare and marketplace in the city. The name of our neighborhood was Bab el-Khan. Today, hanging on the stone walls of my old Bab el-Khan neighborhood…
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Fast Forward Israeli Court Upholds Conviction Of Soldier Who Shot Disarmed Terrorist
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A military appeals court upheld the manslaughter conviction and 18-month prison sentence for Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier convicted of shooting a downed Palestinian terrorist. The panel of five judges on Sunday handed down the ruling, which took more than two hours to read out. The judges rejected the defense’s arguments and…
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Fast Forward Israeli Soldiers Raid Palestinian Media Facility, Citing ‘Incitement’
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli soldiers raided the offices of PalMedia, a Palestinian media production company, in the West Bank city of Ramallah early Saturday morning. The forces seized equipment and documents from at least one of the offices, on suspicion of “incitement to terrorism,” according to the Israel Defense Forces. PalMedia provides broadcast services to…
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Fast Forward Journalist Says Israeli Army Radio Tried To Block Sheldon Adelson Report
Former Army Radio journalist Avner Hofstein says that his investigation into possible misconduct in billionaire businessman and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson’s relationship with Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center was blocked by his superiors. Hofstein, once the head of investigative reporting at Army Radio, also claimed in a Facebook post that he was threatened with dismissal after refusing…
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Fast Forward 6 Soldiers From India’s ‘Lost Tribe’ Join Israeli Army Together
Six soldiers from the “Bnei Menashe” community in northeastern India have joined an Israeli army unit together. They were inducted into the IDF in a ceremony this month. The “Bnei Menashe” community, which has a population of 10,000 worldwide, claims to be directly descended from the “lost tribe” of Menashe, one of the original 12…
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Opinion I’m The First Transgender Army Officer In Israeli History. This Is My Story.
Last week, four years after I graduated from the Israel Defense Forces officer course, I was promoted to the rank of captain. For me, this is not a personal achievement; it is one dedicated to my commanders. Understand that my journey was not like any other. I am Israel’s first openly transgender soldier. A year…
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Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
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Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
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Fast Forward Meet Lev Kreitman, who brought down Tel Aviv shooter and survived Nova music festival on Oct. 7
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