Organizers call for nonviolence at Ethiopian-Israeli rally against cop brutality

Organizers of a planned rally by Ethiopian-Israelis protesting alleged police violence against the community urged Tuesday that demonstrators and cops take steps to avoid violent confrontations.

The demonstration was called amid mounting anger after a police officer shot dead an Ethiopian-Israeli man earlier in the month. Yehuda Biadga, 24, was killed January 18, in his hometown of Bat Yam as he charged at the officer with a knife, police said.

Police have denied Biadga’s ethnicity was connected to the officer’s decision to open fire, saying he felt a credible fear for his life. An investigation was opened into the incident and the shooting officer has since been placed on leave.

The planned demonstration, which has a police permit, will take place on Wednesday, starting at 3 p.m. at the Azrieli complex in Tel Aviv and will continue in the direction of the city’s Rabin Square.

Tens of thousands are expected to take part and thousands of police and Border Police are to be sent to secure the event.

Protest organizer Shahar Molla said at the press conference that the demonstration was “justified,” and said promised changes after mass protests in 2015 against police discrimination had failed to be realized.

“Every day we experience additional incidents of violence against our youth,” he said.

Molla said organizers were calling for nonviolence.

“It is the police which is trying to paint us as violent,” he charged.

Yehuda Biadga. (Screen capture: Twitter)

Rally organizers are demanding that the government hold an emergency meeting over the shooting and launch a special investigation led by a judge, separate from that of the police’s internal investigation department, which is already probing the matter.

Molla said the internal investigation department had “lost the trust of our community, it has no teeth, we understand that it can’t give an answer.”

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said he had ordered that all police assigned to the protest be equipped with body cameras. The announcement came after Tebeka, a nonprofit organization providing legal support for the Ethiopian-Israeli community, urged he take the measure “in order to prevent the next unnecessary violent incident,” Hadashot TV news reported.

Last week, Erdan launched a project to equip all police in the Tel Aviv region with body cameras, equipment which is not yet standard issue in the Israeli Police force.

Candles lit at the site where Ethiopian-Israeli Yehuda Biadga was shot and killed as he ran at a policeman while waving a knife, seen here in Bat Yam on January 20, 2019. Poster reads ‘Yehuda Biadga was murdered here.’ (Flash90)

The Walla website reported Monday that police have been concerned over calls on social media to attack cops at the rally event, including calls to open fire at a local police station.

Police have prepared for the eventuality and have warned participants that such a scenario “is very serious and the police will react with great force.”

More than 135,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, most of them having immigrated in two waves in 1984 and 1991. But many have struggled to integrate into Israeli society amid lingering accusations of discrimination.

Community leaders and others have said there is a pattern of racism and abuse by police toward Ethiopian-Israelis, despite promises to root out the problem.

In 2015, a large demonstration in support of the Ethiopian community against police brutality and racism turned violent, transforming the city center into a veritable war zone.

At least 41 people were injured in the hours-long melee, which saw protesters hurl rocks at police, and officers respond with stun grenades and water cannons.