About four years after a 2015 Israeli government report by Justice Ministry director-general Emi Palmor called for major changes in how the state treats Ethiopian-Israelis, 34 of its 51 recommendations had been carried out and nine more were under way, according to a March 2019 government follow-up report cited by The Jerusalem Post. Eight recommendations, about 16 percent, had not been acted on at all.
The figures came as the community mourned Solomon Tekah, an 18-year-old Ethiopian-born Israeli shot dead by an off-duty police officer at the end of June 2019. The Police Investigation Department, the Justice Ministry unit that examines police conduct, said it hoped to finish its inquiry within weeks. The officer said he felt endangered by stone-throwing and was trying to break up a disturbance, while most other witnesses said he was not threatened and started the confrontation.
Most of the recommendations still not carried out called for new programs in the education, communication and sport ministries to help Ethiopian-Israelis and fight discrimination. Two police failures stood out: the follow-up report said police still did not video-record the questioning of Ethiopian-Israelis accused of serious crimes, and had not issued their own report on the reforms and problem cases.
The police did make changes, the report said. A directive told officers to identify themselves more clearly and not to push for an arrest when it was not needed. Police held 80 seminars on cultural understanding and avoiding friction with minorities, and senior officers encouraged closing minor cases involving Ethiopian-Israelis, especially minors. Prosecution papers were translated into Amharic more often, and the state offered more free legal help to people who said they faced discrimination.
Progress was uneven at the top. In August 2016, after the Palmor report was released, then-police chief Roni Alsheich said it was “natural” for law enforcement to be more suspicious of Ethiopians and other migrants than of the general population.
Sources: The Jerusalem Post