JERUSALEM -- Israelis and many in the Ethiopian community were shocked by the enormity of Sunday's violent confrontations between Ethiopian Jews and Jerusalem police, but perhaps they should not be shocked.

Israel airlifted tens of thousands of Jews from famine-ridden Ethiopia between 1984 and 1985 and again in 1991. In the years since then, Ethiopian community leaders have been complaining about inferior housing, jobs and education.

"If Israelis don't know about our problems, they haven't been listening," Adiso Masala, one of the community's most vocal activists, said during Sunday's rally outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.

Those problems -- which include what Ethiopian community leaders consider a longstanding pattern of discrimination by Israeli government authorities -- have been simmering for years.

But revelations last week regarding how Ethiopian blood donations were routinely discarded brought emotions to the boiling point.

Leaders of Israel's Ethiopian community organized the demonstration after the Israeli daily Ma'ariv revealed that Magen David Adom, which operates the country's nationwide blood bank, regularly discards blood donated by Ethiopian immigrants, fearing that the blood is contaminated with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.


During Sunday's demonstration, which lasted most of the day, some of the 10,000 demonstrators clashed with scores of Israeli police armed with riot gear.

At least 50 Ethiopian Jews and police were injured in the demonstrations. Two police officers were severely injured -- one lost an eye -- when stones and other objects were thrown at them.

Although rally organizers and police blamed each other for the violence, many eyewitnesses were critical of the police department's decision to bring in water cannons and tear gas.

Several demonstrators, many of them elderly, and dozens of police officers became ill when the wind changed direction and blew clouds of tear gas directly over them.

According to Micha Odenheimer, director of the Israeli Association of Ethiopian Jews, this week's demonstration "was years in the making."

"It was an expression of the Ethiopians' outrage that, over the years, they have not really been absorbed into Israeli society."

The community "feels pushed into the margin of Israeli society. Despite some efforts by the government, many Ethiopian children still learn in largely segregated classrooms. Unemployment is high, and Ethiopians are the poorest ethnic group in Israel today."

Unless something is done quickly to reverse these trends, he added, "Ethiopian Jews will become a permanent black underclass."

In any discussion with Ethiopian activists, their first concern tends to be education. For many years, at least two-thirds of Ethiopians in primary school attended segregated "absorption classes."

An even larger percentage of teenagers was -- and still is -- sent to religious boarding schools, where many of the other students come from "problem homes."

Odenheimer said both the boarding schools and segregated classes actually hurt the very children they are supposed to help.

"Segregating kids prevents them from integrating, and the level of education tends to be lower," he said. "Sending teenagers away from home hurts the fabric of the family, and the parents eventually lose their authority over their children."

After numerous demonstrations by Masala and other Ethiopian activists, the government changed the education policy about three years ago and began mainstreaming Ethiopian children.

Amnon Be'eri, spokesman for the Ministry of Absorption, said, "I wouldn't say there haven't been problems or mistakes, but we are doing the best we can."

As proof, Be'eri points to the government's housing plan for Ethiopian immigrants.

Unlike other immigrant groups, which receive discounts on home mortgages, Ethiopian families are entitled to grants that cover 85 percent of the cost of an apartment, up to $110,000. This scheme has allowed the vast majority of Ethiopians to move out of caravan parks and into permanent housing.

Ethiopian activists acknowledge these efforts, but regard them as too little, too late. Masala said the government created an education task force about a year ago, but it received only $5 million of the $18 million needed to institute its recommendations.

Meanwhile, Ethiopian immigrants deeply feel that they are victims of discrimination.

"Israelis make us feel as if we're not Jewish," said Shira Eilen, an 18-year-old Jerusalemite. "The blood thing was just the breaking point."

Estie Hananya, a 15-year-old from Rishon Lezion, said: "Today they don't want my blood because I am black. Tomorrow they may not want my brain. People have called me a kushit, a nigger."


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