Editor’s Note: Riots erupted in cities throughout Israel after an a bullet fired at the ground by an off-duty police officer on Sunday reportedly ricocheted and killed Solomon Tekah, 19, a member of Israel’s Ethiopian Jewish community. At a memorial service on Tuesday, Tekah’s father, Workah, declared: “We respect the laws and customs. Why are we not respected? We have to live together. Enough! Let us be at peace. i want to be the last parent to bury their child.”
By Sam Litvin
TEL AVIV, Israel — Aside from some added traffic and re-routing of buses, the city is generally quiet. We live next door to a predominantly black and immigrant neighborhood. On my way home last night, as I walked through the neighborhood, there were no issues with anyone on the street or on buses. If you look at the videos, the protests have actually a small number of people, 100-200 people or so per site at maximum. There is also an interesting article that talks about how the non-Ethiopian Arab and Jewish players are directing the protests and riots.
As I see it, these protests are not about the teen who was killed, but basic neglect by the Netanyahu administration at making sure that all people are respected and understand that everyone has a place in the society.
Over the years there has been racism and abuse. The government has not reached out to communities affected by abuse and has not done anything to rectify the abuse by police in marginalized communities: Arab or Jew. Thus, there had to come a time when someone would take this can of kerosene and would light it.
This is a dangerous situation because the divisions can be exploited and can harm society for a long time to come. Although it is a tiny percentage of people rioting, and many of them are not Ethiopian, the perception created by headlines and videos is that it is only Ethiopians, creating a dangerous backlash and divisions that can take a long time to heal.
We are people who suffered too much in lands foreign to us. It is no time to blame, it is no time to hate, it is no time to burn. It is time for the administration to step up and figure out a way to resolve the longstanding grievances and the system that creates the abuses and fix it. Because if they let it fester, and ignore it, it will only get worse and work against us at the worst possible moment.
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Freelance writer Litvin, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, lived for a while in San Diego before moving to Israel.