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Ethiopian groups in Israel to rally against ‘apartheid’

Posted on , Updated on by Elias Kifle

Ruth Eglash, THE JERUSALEM POST

A wide cross-section of Ethiopian groups is planning to protest Wednesday in Petah Tikva against what is sees as a policy of apartheid adopted by the education system specifically and Israeli society in general.

The demonstration, which is set to kick off at 10 a.m. opposite the town’s municipal building, is to express the community’s anger over the revelation last week that a Petah Tikva school had been keeping four Ethiopian second-grade pupils separate from the rest of the student body.

“This phenomenon of apartheid by the education system should be a cause of concern to all the Israeli public and not just the Ethiopian community,” commented Avraham Neguise, head of a coalition of Ethiopian groups in Israel. “As Jews, we moved here to be part of Israeli society and not to be kept separate.”

Among those expected to participate in the rally are Ethiopian community spiritual leaders, heads of community welfare organizations, students, Knesset Members and any one who believes in justice, wrote Neguise in a statement.

7 thoughts on “Ethiopian groups in Israel to rally against ‘apartheid’”

  1. Ya! These people have also the right to protest. I am sure that no Israeli police officer will shoot at them. The Ethiopians at home do not have this right in their country.

  2. The Ethiopian Jews will be in a long civil rights struggle for many, many years to come. The racism and discrimination as reported by some of my friends in Israel is still appalling.
    It is far better for educated Ethiopian jews to work and live in the USA than Israel. Very few professionals have so far been successful in getting a real job, most are doing the usual menial jobs that most Palestinians would not touch.
    If they are treating young children this way, wait and see how they are going to treat them as adults.

    Stand up and rise up for your rights, as long as you are forced to kill another unarmed Palestinian and die for nothing with IDF.

    Yes! they have also told us, Ethiopian names are not good enough, so the old Shibru is Shivru here, so Wubie so Voube, so are are we forced to go to religious conversion classes and get circumcision Israeli style. Oh! forgot, our Qiess was told he was not good enough to be a Rabbi …

    Tamara Shivru, who was the old chap known as Tamrat Shibru of Quara.

  3. Who told them to migrate to Israel in the first place? It’s not hard to figure out that there was and still there is an institutional racism in the tiny Jewish State. Better lives usually come with prices…so they sooner they realize this the better!

  4. I have a suggestion to my fellow Ethio-bloggers. I say lets stand beside the Ethiopian Jews to show the world that no matter what we, Ethiopians stand together when it comes to our people. One thing we Ethio-bloggers can do is to create awareness among the Jewish community particularly in Jewish forums and blogs such as jewishjorunal.com, virtualjerusalem.com. we do not need to be hostile but we can bring up the topic on their forums and challenge them to examine themselves and their policies. I have seen very good comments from many of you regarding this issue. I say lets take our opinions to them and let them know that God and the world are watching them.

  5. Shalom Dear freinds:-

    What is the problem to say “ETHIOPIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY”?
    always when you write something about us you said Ethiopian group please try to say exactly our Jewish Identity and we love all of Ethiopians from Ethiopia to all of the diaspora over the world because we also Ethiopians.

    Thank You
    Jonathan Takele
    Jerusalem

  7. For me Jewish ,non Jewish ..it doesn’t really make any difference . They are Ethiopians our own brothers and if to be called Ethiopian Jewish is what they want ,that’s how we should identify them . When they left their country ,their motherland for reasons beyond our explanations ,there was nothing anyone of us can do . But I think Ethiopia was too poor , too confused , too manupilated, too ignorant when they left . We still love them and they will always be part of us . The Israeli Governemnt should definitly treat them equally ,since it will depend highly on our brave brothers to its endless/meaningless war with the Palestinians .

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