The family of Solomon Tekah got up from Shiva (the seven-day period of mourning in Judaism) on July 8 and received an update from the Department of Internal Investigations about the findings of an investigation into the circumstances of Tekah's death. As a reminder, Tekah was a young Ethiopian who was shot by a police officer on June 30. The autopsy and a ballistics investigation both found that a bullet that ricocheted off the ground killed Tekah. Ostensibly, this cleared the police officer who fired the shot of any concern that he targeted Tekah directly. Still, these are not the final findings. The Tekah family has indicated it will not accept anything less than prison for the officer who fired the shot. According to Tekah’s cousin Ora Tesma, “This was a murder, not manslaughter. We will take to the streets if necessary.”

Tekah, 18, was killed on the night of June 30 in a public park in Kiryat Haim. The police officer who fired the shot said he was at the site with his family when he saw a group of young people fighting. He tried to break it up, but they started attacking him and even threw rocks at him. Feeling that his life was in danger, he pulled out his gun and fired a single shot into the ground. Tekah was killed by that shot.

The protest that erupted after Tekah’s funeral was one of the most violent Israel has ever seen. It continues to reverberate across the country and could erupt again when the investigation’s final findings are released. The protest is giving voice to a growing sense of distrust among weaker sectors of the population for the various law enforcement agencies, chief among them the police and the Department of Internal Investigations. For the Ethiopian community, these two bodies represent the institutionalized racism they face because of the color of their skin, more than anyone else. As the Ethiopian community sees it, the Department of Internal Investigations will always trample on their rights. Perhaps that is true, but even if it is not the case, feelings such as this point to an unhealthy and potentially volatile social situation.

The Department of Internal Investigations was created in 1992 as a separate department within the State Attorney’s Office, tasked with investigating crimes in which active duty police officers were involved. The idea of creating an independent body, distinct from the police, to conduct these investigations was a good one. The problem was that many of its investigators came from the police, creating potential conflicts of interests. There has been growing public criticism of the Department of Internal Investigations over the last few years, particularly among weaker communities such as Arabs and Ethiopians. They charge that numerous incidents have been whitewashed and cases involving policemen who took advantage of their position to wrong them were closed before they were investigated sufficiently.