Netanyahu, Ethiopians Meet amid Racial Tensions
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with representatives of the Ethiopian community Monday following demonstrations Sunday evening that turned violent, leaving nearly 50 police and protesters injured.
While some of the demonstrators may have felt an analogy with the recent riots in Baltimore, Israel "is a different country," Fentahun Assefa-Dawit, director of an advocacy organization promoting equality and justice for Ethiopian Israelis, told reporters in a conference call on Monday.
"Israel should be a light to the nations," he said. "We work very hard so there should be no distinction in Israel between people from different backgrounds and cultures."
On Sunday afternoon, several dozen Ethiopian Israelis blocked Tel Aviv's Ayalon Highway during rush hour in largely peaceful protests against the unprovoked beating of an Ethiopian soldier on April 26 by two police officers in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
Security cameras caught the attack against IDF soldier Damas Pakada, 21, during which police pushed him off his bike, threatened and then beat him.
The police initially claimed the soldier attacked them first. That prompted his arrest and a night in jail, but police released him when they saw the videotape and suspended the two officers pending further investigation.
On Sunday, as others joined the demonstration, police attempted to block the crowd heading for Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to continue the protest.
At the square, pushing and shoving turned into skirmishes. Mounted police were dispatched to the scene, followed by officers in full riot gear who used stun grenades and water cannons when pelted with water bottles and rocks.
On Sunday evening, following meetings with Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Netanyahu released a statement, saying, "All claims will be looked into, but there is no place for violence and such disturbances."
Assefa-Dawit told reporters he hopes the videotape that sparked the demonstrations will show the prime minister, the police chief, and others that Ethiopian Israelis deal with racism and discrimination continually.
Ethiopian Israelis have dealt with discrimination, racism, and injustice for many years, he said, often ending up in jail though they were the victims of brutality rather than the perpetrators.
"All of those youngsters who might have been through this [type of] incident now have proof," he said in Monday's conference call.
Most Ethiopians have served in the army and they are Israeli citizens with the same rights as anyone else. Many of those taking part in the protests are sabras -- native-born Israelis, but they exist as an underprivileged minority he said.
Assefa-Dawit hopes Netanyahu will "take the matter into his own hands" and also that the protest will bring about "fruitful and meaningful results."
"We call on the prime minister to take this project in his own hand to bring these issues to an end to establish immediately a committee to investigate and plans ways to involve these issues," he said.
