Ethiopians Mount New Israel Racism Protest
Image by Getty Images
Approximately 1,000 Ethiopian Israelis protested in Tel Aviv against police brutality.
The protest, which began Monday afternoon and grew as it continued into the night, saw protesters march up the city’s central Rothschild Boulevard, stopping at major public squares and blocking intersections. The protest ended at the central Rabin Square.
Demonstrators led chants protesting police brutality against Ethiopians. Earlier this month, a video spread of a policeman beating an Ethiopian Israeli soldier in uniform. The demonstration also protested racism directed at the Ethiopian-Israeli community.
That video sparked a similar protest two weeks ago. That protest ended in a melee at Rabin Square, with arrests and dozens of police and protesters injured. At that protest, police threw stun grenades and used a water cannon to disperse the crowd.
No such conflict happened Monday. Protesters chanted “A violent policeman needs to be put away,” “No matter black or white, racism is the devil,” and “We won’t allow a black person to be unfortunate.”
A scuffle between police and protesters broke out after protesters spotted an Ethiopian-Israeli police officer and chanted, “Ethiopian, take off your uniform.”
“This is a generation of youth, a generation of fighters, a generation of courageous people,” Yaakov Gadasho, one of the protest leaders, said into a megaphone at Rabin Square. “One day we’ll bring out the whole community. One day they’ll know these are people.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the appointment of a special ministerial committee to address the integration of Ethiopian Israelis into broader society.
“There is no room for racism and discrimination in our society. None,” Netanyahu said. “We will fight with all our strength against these unacceptable practices. We will simply uproot them from our lives. We will turn them into something looked down upon, something contemptible.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
