Daily Briefing March 24: Arab MKs silent on Ukraine, as refugees head to Israel

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Arab affairs correspondent Aaron Boxerman and religion and Diaspora affairs correspondent Judah Ari Gross join host Jessica Steinberg.

Boxerman discusses why the majority of Arab Israeli lawmakers skipped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to the Knesset Sunday night, in line with their general silence about the Russian war on Ukraine.

Gross looks at the huge uptick in Ukrainian immigration to Israel and what processing thousands of new immigrants means for Israel’s Jewish Agency, tasked with much of the process of absorbing new Israelis into the country.

Boxerman speaks about his investigation into the shooting of 19-year-old Palestinian Ammar Abu Afifa, who was killed on March 2 by IDF soldiers in a questionable incident.

Gross talks about Yom Ha’aguna, an annual day marked in Israel for women whose husbands refuse to grant them a get, a religious divorce, and his interview with a woman whose former husband finally granted her one.

Discussed articles include:

Arab Israeli MKs skip Zelensky’s Knesset speech: ‘NATO imposed this war’

Jewish Agency to ramp up immigration flights from Ukraine to tackle refugee crisis

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teen. The army hasn’t said what he did wrong

After 5 years as a ‘chained woman,’ Esty got her freedom this summer

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