From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Protesters demand police do more to find Ethiopian-origin girl, 9, missing for more than a year
Around a hundred protesters are demonstrating outside the Knesset in Jerusalem demanding the police intensify their investigation into the disappearance of 9-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli girl Haymanut Kasau.
Kasau went missing over a year ago from an absorption center for new immigrants in the northern city of Safed.
“Where is Haymanut? Haymanut was kidnapped!” protesters chant as they march to the Knesset, converging with a crowd of anti-government protesters in the same area.
“Where is the government? Where are the police?” the chants continue.
Protesters wear yellow t-shirts in what organizer Avi Yitzhak describes as a mark of solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The group accuses the police and Shin Bet of ignoring Kasau’s case due to her Ethiopian origin.
“Haymanut wasn’t the right [skin] color,” Yitzhak shouts through a megaphone, demanding the police recategorize her case as a kidnapping.
“If she had just disappeared, they would have found her within a week or two,” he continues.
Meanwhile, protesters railing against the 2025 budget have mixed responses to the crowd, with anti-government organizers attempting to steer the chants.
“One bloc — together we will win!” shouts activist Moshe Radman through his own megaphone, but the chant quickly dies out.
