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'Lost generation' of Ethiopian-Israelis protest in Tel Aviv

The violent demonstrations of Ethiopian-Israelis is a signal to the leadership that the community will not take any more discrimination or abuse.
Israeli security forces arrest an Israeli man from the Ethiopian community in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, on May 3, 2015, during a protest against alleged police brutality and institutionalised discrimination. The protest came three days after a stormy demonstration in Jerusalem sparked by footage showing two police officers beating an Israeli soldier of Ethiopian origin in uniform. More than 135,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, having immigrated to the Jewish state in two waves in 1984 and 1991. AFP PH
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The May 3 demonstration turned Rabin Square in the heart of Tel Aviv into a battleground. As the protest reached its climax, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office attempted to restore calm by issuing a press release stating that the prime minister will be hosting an urgent discussion on the matter, with the participation of the leading representatives of the Ethiopian community. One such representative named in the statement was the soldier Damas Pakedeh, who was seen in a video last month being beaten by the police for no apparent reason. It was this very video clip that incited the current protests, which, in retrospect, are some of the most violent that Israel has ever seen.

Just as he did in the stormiest days of the social protests during the summer 2011, Netanyahu is taking rapid, point-specific steps to calm down everyone and restore order. He did the same thing after the elections, when he invited the senior leadership of Israel’s Arab population to his office. For the prime minister, this was a kind of public apology for his racist announcement on Election Day that “the Arabs are heading to the polls in droves.”

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