Ethiopians clash with police; 8 hurt
Sheera Claire Frenkel, THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 6, 2006
What was meant to be a peaceful rally for Ethiopian rights turned violent Monday, when demonstrators clashed with police in front of the Health Ministry in Jerusalem, leaving 19 people injured.
More than 200 people gathered in front of the government compound to protest discrimination against Ethiopians. The boiling point, they said, was a recent decision by the Health Ministry to discard donated Ethiopian blood.
“We won’t allow our blood to be spilled like this. The Torah says that blood is the soul. How can this country treat us, fellow Jews, this way?” said Gadi Yabarken, one of the protest’s organizers. “We will not leave unless the prime minister agrees to meet with us.”
While Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refused to meet with the protesters, Immigration and Absorption Minister Ze’ev Boim met with a small group of their representatives and promised to approach Olmert to ask him to create a ministerial committee dedicated to the Ethiopian community. Boim also promised to work for the release the five activists who were arrested during the protest.
The only politician to address the protest was MK Ran Cohen (Meretz). “I feel your pain. A country that discriminates against Ethiopian Jews is a racist country,” said Cohen, who added that he would raise the issue in the Knesset plenum.
Demonstrators answered Cohen’s speech with shouts that they were “sick of the false promises” of politicians.
Yabarken said the government had not upheld any of its promises to advance Ethiopian rights or deal with problems such as raising the salaries of Ethiopian religious leaders to match other rabbis, expand Falash Mura immigration or increase affirmative-action programs.
“These problems have been building up for some time, but to find out that they will throw our blood away, for no reason other than racist discrimination, that is too much to bear,” Yabarken said.
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in case you have been so stupid and havent realized it yet…the way white people are is their NATURE..we all can do the same things that they can do..dont let these devils disrespect you
Racism in Israel is common as any other country which is a melting pot of russian,morrocans,polish
,Syrians,Greek,Yemenites etc`.Every new wave of immigrants meet the same problems the previous wave dealt with and still deals with.Problem with ethiopians is they came without western education.This,sadly,is limiting them in employment opportunities and social integration.As the educational system in Israel tries(not always successfully)to give an equal starting point for all immigrants, the ethiopians will eventually find their way to a better life.The blood issue is a different matter.Since AIDS is rampant in Africa and many ethiopian blood samples have been found HIV positive the ministry of health have decided to avoid taking their blood as a safety precaution.This is controversial in Israel and is still a matter of debate.
Why should Israel risk contracting AIDS from possible tainted blood? Why do you call all whites devils? We all share the same inherent propensities for good and evil. I do not think that Africans are innately innocent in their moralities do you? Have not all men hurt any other since time immemorial?
I understand your anxieties all too well. Our modern world is dastardly and devoid of soul.
Love all men equally as this is what you heart tells you. Peace.
lee johnson…if one uses your logic then why not call all whites devils. not all africans have hiv and not all africans blood is tainted… so why throw away all african blood. if you brand africans tainted then we should brand whites devils
D, your thinking is elementary and devoid of any logic. As we all know, Africa is unfortunately facing a pandemic crisis – AIDS. You are aware of this are you not? Should Israel examine each and every donors blood or just not take the chance and discard the Ethiopians? What would you do?
I do not brand Africans as tainted. They are a beautiful people. The bastards that sundered them from their world, their religion, their homes and families were indeed devils, I give you that. I despise this false existence we are all forced to live. We have a religion that is external to us – the Bible. This is a collection fables and histories promulgated by the Romans in the last days of their viscios, greedy empire. Do not forget that before Rome and Christianity invaded Europe my people lived as did yours. We worshiped nature. This is a true religion that can be experienced with our living flesh, not a disembodied book about strange people (Jews) and what they did ages before. How could what someone did 3000 years ago in an alien land have any real meaning to me now?
When we all lived in villages we loved each other and were family. We respected the wisdom of the elders.
Please do not think that all whites are evil or devils. Some of us like myself think quite differently than the nonsense that was crammed down our throats since childhood.
We are all a family of man.
Yes if I were black I would be angry.
I am angry that our world has been prostituted to a paradigm of corporate greed and reckless destruction. Giant ancient trees for sale!!! We will get the villagers to cut them for us and work like slaves in the new factories for nothing but debt!!!
Brothers, we need to cast aside this insidious plot against us and Mother Earth, from whom we are all children, and join as one in the fight!
Lee and D
I hear you both loud and clear.
Lee, your one love sentiments are unimpeachable. Yet, going by your logic not all Africans have AIDs.
Moreover, we are not even so sure about the basis of the HIV/AIDs theory as it was another politically motivated disease definition. See: AIDS
You also implicitly admitted that all blood should be screened for AIDs disease. Indeed this is presently the standard operating procedure for most hospitals.
Given all this, it is then an overkill, an irrational inference, to view all African blood as tainted and hence something that is of lower value than say blood from USA, Israel, and Japan the hubs of all prostitution and sexual depravity.
Since technology is being used to screen all blood donors individually, what motivates the exception in the case of Africans? Why not deploy the same technology to screen each individual African blood donor accepting those that are whole and rejecting the unwholesome.
You may not be racist, Lee. But having grown up in a racist culture, you should watch your presumptions otherwise you may end up in that racist stink pit again.
But I hear you, about the nature worship, the villages, the elders and the trees. That is Rasta livity! You give me much hope. It is people like I and I that will build the really brave and bright new world of love…just on the horizon.
And D…keep up your vigilance..my lion. Hail Rasta!
One Love
Jahdey
I have always believed that AIDS was a wretched plot created by Godless and heartless scientists the purpose of which is to rid the continent of the indigenous peoples. I guess maybe now that I think about it perhaps it is rascist of Israel to discard Ethiopian blood.
I had a friend I worked with (from the Bahamas, a black guy) who said “we should all just go home”. This is so true. If only the colonial pigs had never in their lust for all that glitters left their stinking European nations and went off to steal what was not and IS NOT theirs! Now look at us after centuries of science. We live in a dying world full of erosion, giant storms (the like of which have not been seen and will only grow more destructive), global warming, pollution, loss of potable water, and an age of industry feeding off of a paridly diminishing resource – OIL. Oil is running out and when it does the population that exploded along with the machines is going to perish.
sigh maybe we are devils
Much that was lore and love and light is lost. Whole civilizations have been burying in the dust of the ages and their manuscripts burned if their knowledge was counter to those is “power”.
Look at what happened in Iraq. Their great museum was looted while American soldiers looked on. There were so many scrolls from the anceint days that it would have taken a century to hae translated all of them. Burned.
To all of you from Africa I say “keep up your faith and join your cousins in the resistance”.
God bless all of you