President Reuven Rivlin today on Tuesday, May 28, 2019, received the annual report of the Unit for the Coordination of the Struggle Against Racism. The report was presented by Director-General of the Ministry of Justice Emi Palmor and the head of the unit, Oka Kobi Zana.

The president began his remarks by saying, “in April 2015 a video clip circulated that showed Damas Pakada, an IDF soldier, being beaten by police despite not acting violently. And so, close to Pesach – the holiday that symbolizes freedom and liberty – a public protest by the Ethiopian community began against the racism it faces. The citizens who took to the streets, including the best of our young men and women, told us that they deal with racism, exclusion and stigmatization on a daily basis – at work, on the streets and in the playgrounds. Their protest, then as today, is everyone’s protest. We have, all of us, Israeli society as a whole, a huge challenge that we have to face.”

The president continued, “looking at the report shows the depth of the problem we face. It shows the racism and lack of equality that many members of Israeli society encounter – Arabs, chareidim, Ethiopians, Sephardim, Russians and, I am afraid, many others.”

The president also pointed out that the report has a positive side: “although we do not yet live in a perfect society where equality of opportunity is enjoyed by all, but there is a large and growing part of society, a meaningful and committed group of social activists, researchers, government officials from all ministries, who are working to create comprehensive systemic change. This change will allow the various official institutions and ministries to recruit the best, the most outstanding, of our people who will be selected solely on the basis of their skills, and not by their ethnicity or the color of their skin. There is no doubt we still face a long battle against discrimination, racism and prejudice, but awareness has developed greatly, and we can already see a change on the horizon.”

The president once again mentioned the initiative calling on young Ethiopian Israelis to request that their criminal record be cleared. “A few months ago, the Justice Minister and I launched an initiative to call on Ethiopian minors and young people who had been charged with public order offensives in the past to submit a request for their criminal record to be cleared. I said then that these young people have faced discrimination from the authorities and from Israeli society, that they suffer from negative stereotypes and are excluded, stigmatized and even encounter physical and verbal violence.”

He continued, “our responsibility as a society is to do everything possible to confront racism and to root it out. The authorities must fight any instances of exclusion, discrimination and stigmatizing. Our call to those young people to request pardons is another step in the war against stigmatizing and discrimination. It is another step towards healing the rifts between Ethiopian Israelis and the authorities and society.” At the end of his remarks, the president thanked everyone involved for their efforts, their sense of duty and their commitment.

Director-General of the Ministry of Justice Emi Palmor thanked the president for the opportunity to present the Unit for the Coordination of the Struggle Against Racism’s second annual report. “In 2016 we presented you, Mr. President, with the original report of the inter-ministerial team on dealing with racism against Israelis of Ethiopian origin, and since then we have established this unit that deals not only with the Ethiopian Israeli community, but with all Israelis. The unit receives and deals with complaints from all Israeli citizens – Arabs, those from the Former Soviet Union, Sephardim and others. Thanks to the protest of the Ethiopian community, the State of Israel was obliged to deal with the struggle against racism in an institutional way. The Ministry of Justice is proud to be in the vanguard of that struggle, and to work on fundamental reforms to prevent institutional discrimination. I would like to thank the president for hiss support and believe that the unit’s work fits together with his work to connect and bring together all the communities of Israeli society. The report shows signs of change, and we would like to say that even though the road is long, we are optimistic that change is possible.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem / photo credit: Mark Neiman, GPO)