Israel protest turns violent
Ethnic Ethiopian citizens protesting racism charged by officers
TEL AVIV, Israel — Police on horseback charged hundreds of ethnic Ethiopian citizens in central Tel Aviv on Sunday as an antiracism protest descended into one of the most violent demonstrations in Israel’s commercial capital in years.
The protesters, Israeli Jews of Ethiopian origin, were demonstrating against what they say is police brutality after the emergence last week of a video clip that showed policemen shoving and punching a black soldier.
Demonstrators overturned a police car, smashed shop windows, and threw bottles and stones at officers in riot gear at Rabin Square in the heart of the city.
At least 56 officers and 12 protesters were injured — some requiring hospital treatment — officials said, and 43 people were arrested.
Police used water cannons and stun grenades to try to clear the crowds. Israeli television stations said tear gas was also used, something the police declined to confirm.
“I’ve had enough of this behavior by the police; I just don’t trust them anymore … when I see the police I spit on the ground,” one female demonstrator who was not identified told Channel 2 before the mounted police charge.
“Our parents were humiliated for years. We are not prepared to wait any longer to be recognized as equal citizens,” another demonstrator told Channel 10.
Tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in top-secret operations in the 1980s and 1990s after a rabbinical ruling that they were direct descendants of the biblical Jewish Dan tribe.
The community, which now numbers about 135,500 out of Israel’s population of more than 8 million, has long complained of discrimination, racism and poverty.
Tensions rose after an incident a week ago in a Tel Aviv suburb in which a closed-circuit video camera captured a scuffle between a policeman and a uniformed soldier of Ethiopian descent.
Israeli politicians, stung by community leaders’ comparison of the incident to police violence against blacks in the United States, have tried to defuse tensions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for calm. Taking time out from the final days of negotiations to form a coalition government, he said he would meet Ethiopian activists and the soldier today.