Israel yesterday admitted “mistakes” in dealing with its Ethiopian community as top officials sought to ease tensions after clashes erupted during protests over alleged police brutality and discrimination.
Last week, years of simmering anger within the Ethiopian minority exploded into anger during a protest in Jerusalem sparked by a video showing two police officers assaulting an Ethiopian soldier in uniform.
A second protest in Tel Aviv on Sunday also deteriorated into violence, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to schedule urgent talks with community leaders as well as with the soldier, Damas Pakada.
Photo: AFP
The talks began about midday yesterday, public radio said.
At Sunday’s protest, police used stun grenades, water cannon and pepper spray to disperse a crowd of several thousand Ethiopian Israelis.
Protesters threw stones, bottles and chairs, injuring 55 police officers.
Photo: AFP
At least 43 people were arrested, police said, and 19 would face charges of rioting and attacking officers.
At least 12 demonstrators were hurt, police said, although the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.
The Tel Aviv protest was one of the most violent in Israel in years, and raised fears of further confrontation with the 135,000-member Ethiopian Jewish community.
The community, which mostly immigrated in two waves in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, has long complained of political and economic marginalization.
“We will continue to fight but without violence,” protest participant Benny Malassa, 41, said. “We only want people to hear us, for the people of Israel to hear our pain.”
“I love this country and I want my children to have a future here, but today I feel more black than Jewish because the state has made us second-class citizens,” he said.
Ahead of the talks with Netanyahu, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin made a first gesture, describing community members as “some of our finest sons and daughters” and denouncing their treatment.
“The protesters ... revealed an open and raw wound at the heart of Israeli society. The pain of a community crying out over a sense of discrimination, racism and of being unanswered,” he said.
“We have made mistakes. We did not look, we did not listen enough,” Rivlin said.
Fentahun Assefa-Dawit, executive director of Tebeka, an advocacy organization for equality and justice for Ethiopian Israelis, said resolving the community’s problems should be Netanyahu’s top priority.
“We call on the prime minister to take matters into his own hands,” he told reporters before heading into talks with Netanyahu.
“We demand him to bring these issues to an end, to establish a committee to investigate everything and plan a way to resolve these issues,” he said.
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