May, 2015

The leadership of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ) is appalled at the unprovoked attack at the hands of Israeli police on a uniformed Ethiopian-Israeli member of the IDF, 21-year-old Corporal Damas Fikade.

An ensuing mass protest in Tel Aviv on May 3 ended in violence. But up to the point when the hours-long march entered Rabin Square, it had been a model of democratic process.

The Ethiopian demonstrators walked peacefully, chanting, carrying their messages on signs, some carrying Israeli flags. They were joined by members of the Knesset and non-Ethiopians.

Although the marchers, who did not have a permit to demonstrate, blocked traffic in downtown Tel Aviv, police were instructed to show restraint, and did so.

It is not clear what turned this peaceful protest into a violent confrontation. According to Chief Superintendent Nissim Doudi, Commander of the North Tel Aviv police precinct, the violence was started not by Ethiopians but by “anarchist groups” that co-opted the demonstration.

Everyone from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Ethiopian-Israeli leaders deplored the violence, as have the American Jewish organizations that have worked with Ethiopian Jews, NACOEJ prominent among them.

Shoshana Ben-Dor, NACOEJ Director of Israel Programs, was among the first to sign a letter from a large forum of Ethiopian-Israeli organizations, urging the national Comptroller’s Office to start an investigation into police treatment of Ethiopian citizens.

Corporal Fikade said on Army Radio: “I am opposed to violence against citizens and against police.  It’s important that they hear our side, but violence will not solve the problem.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Corporal Fikade, and with Ethiopian leaders, police officials, members of his cabinet and many others to look at what Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called “an open and raw wound at the heart of Israeli society”.

The protest has brought to the forefront other distress signals coming from Ethiopian-Israelis as to housing, employment, social acceptance, and of course poverty and education. 

In response, Israeli President Rivlin said: “We have erred. We have not looked, or listened, enough.”

Let us all look and listen with newly opened eyes and ears, and work together toward solutions that will provide the Ethiopian-Israeli community with the resources and opportunities that they deserve to take their rightful place in Israeli society.