MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : RASCISM & GEORGE FLOYD IN ISRAEL

PALESTINE LIVES MATTER

Israel: Ethiopian-born officials press for dramatic police reform – Al Monitor 26 June 2020

The killing of George Floyd sparked memories of the police shooting last year of Solomon Tekah, an 18-year-old Israeli of Ethiopian origin. The riots following Tekah’s funeral were among the most violent ever observed in Israel.

As Mazal Mualem wrote at the time, the protests gave “voice to a growing sense of distrust among weaker sectors of the population for the various law enforcement agencies, chief among them the police and the Department of Internal Investigations. For the Ethiopian community, these two bodies represent the institutionalized racism they face because of the color of their skin, more than anyone else.”

This month, the incoming deputy minister of public security, Gadi Yevarkan, a member of the Likud party and a child of Ethiopian immigrants, has proposed legislation to dismantle the Internal Affairs department and place it under the Justice Ministry.

His ally in the fight is Pnina Tamano-Shata, the first Israeli of Ethiopian origin to serve in the Knesset (parliament) and the minister of immigrant absorption.

“The very fact that Yevarkan and Tamano-Shata were appointed to senior positions in government is especially important to the fight against institutional racism,” Danny Zaken writes. “Their test will be whether they succeed in bringing about real change in the coming years.”

Palestine: “Palestinian lives matter”

Palestinian feminists and Israeli and Palestinian activists organized protests across the West Bank and in Israeli cities to protest the shooting of Eyad Hallaq, an autistic Palestinian, at the entrance of Al-Aqsa Mosque, five days after Floyd’s murder.

Signs and chants of “Palestinian lives matter” and “I can’t breathe” have become mainstays of the demonstrations.

“Activists presented the case of Hallaq as a clear example of the racist practices against them and the oppression they face only because they are Palestinians, comparing their situation to that of African Americans in the United States,” reports Aziza Nofal from Ramallah, speaking with activists involved in the protests.

Although Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz promised an investigation into the killing, “International and Israeli human rights organizations have come to the conclusion that Israeli investigations of killings of unarmed Palestinians are not taken seriously,” writes Daoud Kuttab.