The events began when an off-duty policeman shot and killed an Ethiopian youth, Solomon Tika, aged 19, who was brought from Ethiopia to Israel with his family when he was 12, to justify his death, arguing that the young man was in a row with others, And that when he tried to abuse them to stop the quarrel threw stones, and that he fired in defense of himself and to save his life.

The incident caused a wave of anger among the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel, which turned into widespread violence, destroying cars, ambulances and burning tires. The Israeli authorities tried to contain the situation, but the demonstrations widened over the course of days, injuring dozens and arresting 136 demonstrators.

The roots of the problem

The Ethiopian Jewish community dates back to the beginning of 1975, but the real presence of Ethiopian Jews is reinforced by three large waves of migration. The first was in the 1980s, through what was known as the "Falasha migration" or the so-called "Operation Moses" And the second in the nineties, which was carried out without noise under the name of «Operation Solomon», but it was characterized by heavy transport, bringing 14 thousand Ethiopian Jews to the Hebrew entity within 36 hours via a large fleet of Israeli military and civilian aircraft , And the third was conducted in a coherent manner Mi since 2000 and peaked in 2010.

The Ethiopian Jewish community today accounts for 1.7% of Israel's population, estimated at 140,000 according to statistics from the Israeli Census and Statistics Center. This society is characterized by its monopoly on the highest poverty, unemployment and low income in Israel.

The roots of the feeling of racism among Ethiopian Jews began in the mid-1990s, when Israeli blood banks refused to accept the blood of the Ethiopians on the pretext of fear of being infected with AIDS known in African countries. Despite the realism of the possibility, publicly speaking raised widespread provocation among Ethiopian Jews. The sense of inferiority when the Ethiopian Jew Avram Mangosto fled, lost his way or was captured on the border with Gaza, Ethiopian Jews compared the disregard of the authorities and the Israeli media to the fate of Mangosto, while he received a great deal of interest in the fate of Gilad Shalit.

The third incident to protest against racism by Ethiopian Jews was in early 2012, when hundreds of them demonstrated in Kiryat Malachi, when the residents of the settlement refused to sell or rent housing units to them and made public petitions, feeling less socially than they. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement declaring "his admiration for Ethiopian Jews who have suffered difficult conditions and overcome many obstacles, and that Israel encourages them to integrate into society in every way and that racism has no place in Israel Ariel.

The fourth incident that inflamed Ethiopian Jewish sentiment was the brutal beating of Ethiopian Ethiopian Damas Bikada by the police forces near his home in 2015, despite the wearing of military uniform, which is the symbol of impunity in Israel for members of the occupation forces, forcing the Israeli military at that time to appear as stand With him, while Netanyahu insisted on his meeting and official apology to the media, he and then the Israeli police chief, and the person involved in the attack, after the exit of thousands of Ethiopian Jews in noisy demonstrations. The repercussions of the Bikada case revealed the extent to which Ethiopian Jews felt the injustice and racism in Israel. His brother said that "if there were no cameras, I would have photographed the incident, because my brother took his right and became the culprit."

Following the Picada incident, the so-called Ministerial Committee for the Eradication of Racism against Jews of Ethiopian Origin, which issued 53 recommendations to the Israeli Prime Minister, 15 of them related to bad police treatment, but according to Yedioth Ahronoth on June 8 2016, "all recommendations for the police have been omitted from the recommendations."

Suffering from racism

"There is no Israeli Ethiopian who has not suffered racism because of the color of his skin in Israel. Every Ethiopian has been subjected to harsh verbal treatment hundreds of times," says Ethiopian Jewish journalist Danny Adina Abebe in an article in Yediot Aharonot. His life, at least here, by the police and the second generation of Ethiopian Jews was born in very gloomy conditions, and their relationship with the Israeli police is based on suspicion. The same police that are supposed to protect us are the ones who inspire fear and terror in us. "

Religious racism

Ethiopian Jewish journalist Thaiego Mako told the Israeli weekly "A-24" that "Israeli racism towards Ethiopian Jews is starting from a religious point of view. Although we Ethiopian Jews have suffered discrimination in Ethiopia, And the Jewish rabbis refused to recognize our Jewishness to this day. Despite all that appeared to us that Israel was meeting us with open arms, the same situation was repeated with the Russian Jews Who also refused Rabbinate also recognize Behudathm, but it seems that the difference here was in the black color of our skin, which has not been marginalized Russian Jews, while we Hmhna. Therefore, racism towards us has a systematic foundation. Israel has not yet determined who is a Jew. Racism toward us began 40 years ago when we threw our blood in garbage cans, under the pretext of protecting society from AIDS, and blessed that ruling institution led by Shimon Peres at the time ».

"There is a perception of the Russian Jews that they are not Europeans, but the Russians knew how to be placed in Israeli society for many reasons, unlike the Ethiopians who put in place," said Nili Baruch, an activist in the Eastern Democratic Movement. Since receiving them in specific places, and the matter has complicated the level of their education and vocational rehabilitation, and have not received any real programs for their development. There are three groups that meet the same level of racism: Ethiopian Jews, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and 1948 Palestinians. This is manifested in the ill treatment of the police. "

There is a perception of the Russian Jews that they are not Europeans, but the Russians have known how to be placed in Israeli society, unlike the Ethiopians, who have been placed since their reception in specific places, and complicate their weak level of education and vocational rehabilitation.

The roots of the feeling of racism among Ethiopian Jews began in the mid-1990s, when Israeli blood banks refused to accept the blood of Ethiopians on the pretext of fear of being infected with AIDS known in African countries, and despite the realism of the possibility, publicizing it provoked widespread provocation among Ethiopian Jews.