{"id":280633,"date":"2019-07-03T14:14:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T18:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CAIiEEopbgblMX5jAX-32dV-oScqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowqfqFCzD7v4MDMJ3KjQY?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-05T11:34:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:34:52","slug":"killing-of-ethiopian-israeli-teenager-solomon-tekah-sets-off-nationwide-protests-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/280633","title":{"rendered":"Killing of Ethiopian-Israeli teenager Solomon Tekah sets off nationwide protests in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tens of thousands of Israelis of Ethiopian descent blocked road junctions across Israel on Tuesday, 2 July 2019, to protest the killing of 18-year-old Solomon Tekah by an off-duty police officer near Haifa two days earlier, The Irish Times reported. Much of the country came to a standstill as drivers sat in traffic for hours.<\/p>\n

\"Protesters
Protesters near the Zevulun police station in Kiryat Haim after the killing of Solomon Tekah, 2 July 2019 (Nir Vedal, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tekah had arrived in Israel from Ethiopia with his family eight years earlier. The officer, who was placed under house arrest, said he opened fire because he feared for his life when a group of young people threw stones at him after he tried to break up a fight. Tekah\u2019s relatives accused him of cold-blooded murder. Tekah was the 11th Ethiopian-Israeli killed by police in a decade, according to the newspaper.<\/p>\n

Police at first kept a low profile and let the protests go ahead. When some young people began burning vehicles and throwing stones and petrol bombs, riot police moved in with stun grenades and tear gas. More than 80 people were hurt and 136 protesters were detained. Demonstrators chanted \u201cA violent policeman belongs inside prison\u201d and \u201cEthiopian lives matter.\u201d On Wednesday night police deployed across the country and kept the roads open.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the killing a tragedy but said violence could not be tolerated, and he asked community members to \u201cexert their influence\u201d to stop it. President Reuven Rivlin urged restraint: \u201cNone of us have blood that is thicker than anyone else\u2019s, and the lives of our brothers and sisters will never be forfeit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews were brought to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s, many in airlifts organized by the Israeli government. Many in the community, especially the young, say they face discrimination from state institutions and racism from the police.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> The Irish Times<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israel hit by unprecedented protests over Ethiopian-Israeli teenager\u2019s murder  The Irish TimesKilling of Solomon Tekah (18) by off-duty police officer sparks rallies across country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/solomon-tekah-protest-kiryat-haim-2019.jpg?fit=1280%2C603&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1b0l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280633"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837295,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280633\/revisions\/837295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}