AL-QUDS — President Reuven Rivlin admitted on Monday that Israel had made mistakes in its treatment of the Ethiopian Jewish community, describing their suffering as “an open wound.” “We have made mistakes. We did not look, we did not listen enough,” he said in a statement after thousands of Ethiopian Israelis took to the streets over allegations of police brutality.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to meet Ethiopian community representatives on Monday in an attempt to ease tensions after police fired stun grenades and used water cannon an pepper spray to disperse a crowd of protesters in Tel Aviv.
Police said Monday that 43 demonstrators had been arrested following the protest on Sunday.
Rivlin said that the protesters had “revealed an open and raw wound at the heart of Israeli society.”
Ethiopian Israelis claim their community, which numbers more than 135,000, has long suffered from widespread discrimination.
Simmering frustrations among Israel's Ethiopian community boiled over after footage emerged last week of an Ethiopian Israeli in an army uniform being beaten by police.
Ethiopian Jews begin migrating to Israel three decades ago. Many complain of racism, lack of opportunity, endemic poverty and routine police harassment.
Rivlin said Israel was seeing “the pain of a community crying out over a sense of discrimination, racism, and of being unanswered.”
Sunday night's violence was the second such protest in several days, and demonstrations are expected to continue. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Monday with the beaten soldier and community leaders.
About 120,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel today, a small minority in a country of 7 million. Their absorption has been problematic, with many arriving without a modern education and then falling into unemployment and poverty as their family structures disintegrate.
Ethiopian Jews trace their ancestors to the ancient Israelite tribe of Dan. The community was cut off from the rest of the Jewish world for more than 1,000 years.
Israeli clandestine operations rescued large groups of Ethiopian Jews from war and famine in the 1980s and early 1990s. Later waves of immigration also included the Falash Mura, members of a community that converted to Christianity under duress more than a century ago but have reverted to Judaism. — Agencies
