04/05/2015 12:25
Israeli Ethiopian protests 'reveal open wound', president says
Israel's president has said Ethiopian Israelis' protests against alleged discrimination "revealed an open and raw wound" at the heart of Israeli society". BBC reports.
Reuven Rivlin said Israel must address the community's grievances, which had been ignored.
It comes after police and protesters clashed in Tel Aviv on Sunday night.
Israel's PM meanwhile has met the Ethiopian Israeli soldier, whose beating by police fuelled tensions.
Benjamin Netanyahu praised Damas Pakedeh and said he was shocked by video which emerged last week showing the soldier being beaten by two police officers in a suburb of Tel Aviv.
One of the policemen involved has been fired and the other suspended from the force, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the BBC. An investigation into the incident is under way.
'Pain of a community'
The protests on Sunday started peacefully as demonstrators blocked a busy road. Many walked with their hands held together in the air, to signify handcuffs. But the demonstration became more violent as night fell.
Some protesters threw stones, bottles and chairs and tried to enter the municipality building.
Police fired tear gas and stun grenades as protesters threw bottles and bricks.
At least 46 police and seven protesters were hurt, officials said. Dozens of protesters were arrested, police said.
President Rivlin blamed a "handful of violent trouble-makers" for the violence but said Israel must deal with Ethiopian Jews' grievances.
The protests, he added, exposed "the pain of a community crying out over a sense of discrimination, racism, and of being unanswered.
"We must look directly at this open wound."
Ethiopian Jews living in Israel have long complained of discrimination, and similar protests in 2012 followed reports that some Israeli landlords were refusing to rent out their properties to Ethiopian Jews.
Ethiopian Jews' income is considerably lower than the general population, and they are much more likely to face limited educational opportunities and to end up in prison, according to The Ethiopian National Project, a non-governmental organisation which assists Ethiopian Jews in Israel.
Tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in secret operations in the 1980s and 1990s to escape famine and civil war. There are now around 135,000 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel.