Widespread discrimination of Israel’s Ethiopian Jews, including in public institutions, was the focus of a review submitted to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by Israel’s justice ministry on Sunday, reported the local Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
A large portion of the report focused on reforming policies in the education system, where children of Ethiopian Jews have allegedly been turned away from public schools and faced discrimination from other Israeli parents. Instead they have often been placed into a separate special schooling system.
It also highlighted discrimination by welfare officers against Ethiopian Jewish families, in religious institutions, healthcare and from police.
Though Ethiopian Israelis have long complained about discrimination, the issue gained widespread attention last year when a video of an Ethiopian Israeli soldier being beaten by police prompted protests in Tel Aviv, which police used tear gas to disperse.
According to a 2014 report by the government-sponsored Ethiopian National Project, the 135,000 Ethiopian Israelis have the highest poverty rate, earn significantly less, live in more densely packed neighborhoods and face disadvantages in education compared to the rest of the Jewish population.
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