Hundreds of people from Israel’s Jewish Ethiopian minority and police clashed in Tel Aviv during an anti-racism protest on Monday. Police said 19 people have been arrested following violence.
The protesters, Israeli Jews of Ethiopian origin, were demonstrating against the closing of a case that they say is police brutality after a video was found last month showing policemen shoving and punching a black soldier in April.
Tensions have been simmering since Israel’s attorney general decided not to prosecute the police officer caught on tape. Thousands of Jews of Ethiopian origin live in Israel, many of them secretly airlifted into the country in 1984 and 1990, but their absorption into Israeli society has been difficult.
Although they are Jewish, Ethiopian community members complain of racism, a lack of opportunity in Israeli society, endemic poverty and routine police harassment.
