Feature: Protests highlight plight of Ethiopian Jews in Israel

Tens of thousands of Israel's black Jewish minority marched recently against ongoing racial profiling and police brutality, blocking traffic arteries throughout the country, including in the big cities of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.

In Tel Aviv, dozens of protesters and policemen were injured, after police tried to disperse the protest using stun grenades, water cannons and tear gas, turning it into one of the most violent demonstrations Israel's financial capital ever saw.

The trigger to these events was a video footage from a CCTV, showing two policemen beating a 19-year-old Ethiopian man, a soldier in the Israeli military, without any apparent provocation. Both policemen were fired.

"Our parents dreamed of getting to Jerusalem for years," says Orly Malesa, 37, a social activist who lives in Tel Aviv, adding that great excitement spread through the community when they were told they would be leaving Israel.

"But here they found that it doesn't matter who you are, how much you have contributed the country, at the end of the day you are just black," she adds with sadness.

Benni Melaku would normally be considered an "A-list" Israeli. After serving his duty to the Israeli military in an elite intelligence unit, he got a lucrative job with a security firm.

In his spare time, 34-year-old Melaku is volunteering as a teacher for underprivileged youths and with a charity that provides meals for people in need.

However, most Israelis see him as nothing more than an Ethiopian, an inferior category of black Jewish citizen which renders him target of racial discrimination.

RACISM OVER THE LIFE COURSE

Ethiopia's Jewish community immigrated to Israel in two secret airlifted operations of Israeli agencies in 1984 and 1991, which were hailed by the state as saving African Jews from wars and hunger.

But today few in the community are celebrating. The community includes some 130,500 people that have been struggling to integrate into society with little success.

Many of them live in impoverished areas in Israel and according to the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews, they earn 40 percent less than the average Israeli income, and 38.5 percent of them live under the poverty line, while the general rate stands at 14.3 percent.

"You encounter racism as a child, when as a kid you are segregated into separate kindergartens and schools. Later, in nightclubs you are discriminated against by the selector at the gate," says Melaku.

When he and a friend arrived at a big recruiting event for hi-tech workers, the receptionist told them they arrived at the wrong place, mistaking them for janitors.

He was exposed to police brutality several times, with the first case happening when he was only 16. "Incidents like these send a message of exclusion to the community," says Melaku.

"After being beaten up, after being brutalized again and again and being discriminated against, many Ethiopians wind up in jails," Dr. Fentahun Assefa-Dawit, Executive Director of Tebeka, an advocacy organization for equality and justice for Ethiopian Israelis.

He added that 40 percent of minors in the Ofek correction prison are of Ethiopian descents although Ethiopians compose only 2 percent of the general population.

"When an Ethiopian applies for a job, as qualified as he might be, as impressive as his CV might be, he is not going to be invited for the interview because he has an Ethiopian name," he added.

"When you see a school that says we cannot take more children because they have a quota of how many Ethiopians they will enroll, you can imagine what the feeling of young people will be," he said.

In 2012, a TV show exposed that doctors in the public health service had been injecting Ethiopian women with Depo-Provera, a contraceptive, without their consent or knowledge.

The sweeping use of Depo-Provera drove a 50 percent decline in birth rate in the Ethiopian community. A year later the Ministry of Health instructed doctors to stop prescribing the injections.

NEW GENERATION STAND UP FOR THEIR RIGHTS

Most of the protesters nowadays are of a new generation. They were born in Israel, and demand equal opportunities and fair treatment by the police, says Assefa-Dawit.

The latest protest was not the first time Ethiopians took the streets, but this time it created a change. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to "eradicate" racism and a ministerial committee headed by him is expected to hold its first meeting later this week.

In an unprecedented move, police chief Yohanan Danino ordered to re-examine files and indictments against Israeli-Ethiopians and to drop charges, in necessary.

Inbar Bugale, a leader of the protest, and other community leaders, said the first triumph has been achieved, for the first time they managed to catch the full attention of the Israeli public to their plight. "But words and promises are not enough, this time we want real actions," Bugale added. Endit