Protest over Zionist Police Brutality Turns Violent in Tel Aviv

Monday, 4 May 2015

Protest over Zionist Police Brutality Turns Violent in Tel Aviv

A protest in Tel Aviv over police mistreatment of Ethiopian Jews turned violent Sunday, resulting in 57 officers being injured, according to the Zionist police.

Most of those injuries were minor, according to police, but one officer was described to be "moderately injured." Police say 12 protestors were injured. The extent of those injuries is not known, according to CNN.

The planned demonstration by the Ethiopian Jewish community -- incensed over a video gone viral that shows a uniformed IOF soldier of Ethiopian descent being assaulted by police -- had been peaceful for hours before things took a violent turn.

Authorities employed horses, water cannons and smoke to disperse the crowd in Rabin Square, where demonstrators had been chanting slogans such as "a violent cop should be in jail."

Forty-three protesters were arrested, according to Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri.
The videotaped episode from April 26 was a tipping point for Ethiopian Jews, some 125,000 strong, who say they have long felt like second-class citizens since arriving in two waves of mass immigration in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement saying that "all claims will be looked into but there is no place for violence and such disturbances." Netanyahu will meet with Pakada on Monday, as well as with leaders in the Ethiopian community, according to the statement.