Emergency Knesset meeting held to address Ethiopian-Israeli community needs
Dozens of Ethiopian-Israeli social activists met with Knesset members for an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue of racism following recent demonstrations against the treatment of their community.
Hadash MK Dov Henin, who hosted the meeting along with former MK Pnina Tamano-Shata, said that after hearing serious claims about police discrimination, a dangerous track toward segregated schooling, disproportionate jailing rates and more, what stands behind it all is “one harsh word: racism.”
“Racism is a disease that harms many sectors in Israeli society and threatens all of us,” he said.
It is the last 30 years of discrimination, Tamano-Shata said, that led to the protests around the country in recent weeks. The young generation of Ethiopian-Israelis are tired of “adhering to the polite ways of the Ethiopian community” in light of the racism in Israel.
“We must not settle for the fact that there is an Ethiopian MK,” she said, claiming the Knesset is not yet doing enough for the Ethiopian-Israeli community.