May, 2020

As Israel slowly returns to some kind of regular way of life, the Association of Ethiopian Jews (AEJ), like other NGOs, has been struggling with tremendous uncertainty and apprehension due to the coronavirus and its aftershocks. This monumental event hit the Ethiopian Israeli community especially hard with difficult socio-economic and educational challenges and the AEJ continues to do everything it can to make a difference.With regard to education, a powerful op-ed was published this month in the Times of Israel, by AEJ’s former Chairperson and current board member, Dr. Shula Mola, and AEJ’s founder and board member, Micha Odenheimer, to highlight the digital-divide during distance learning that ignores the educational challenges and unequal opportunities of marginalized students in the time of coronavirus.AEJ, together with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and others, petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel demanding that the Ministry of Education (Israel) pursue an equitable policy and urgently provide options for online distance learning to * the general population* regardless of socioeconomic status.The Ministry of Education must make computers and Internet access available to all – including to the marginalized:
• 24% of households with children in Israel have no internet connection and 15.7% do not own one computer.
• At least 450,000 students have no Internet connection, and 270,000 students have no computer.
• The average number of children per family in Israel is 2.43, but only 33.5% of households own two or more computers.This means that hundreds of thousands of students are shut out and unable to participate in distance learning, falling far behind, while other Israeli students have been studying for over a month and a half. Responsibility must be taken, otherwise even wider gaps and more acute inequalities will develop.This is not a sudden failure due to the corona crisis, but a long-standing policy of the Ministry of Education – that has promoted online learning without providing an equal opportunity for all students.Close the Digital Divide! The Ministry of Education is for everyone, and should work for everyone!With regard to the police, in a recently published Media-Line article in the Jerusalem Post, I address the disturbing ongoing fallout from the coronavirus. Concerned about uptick in police aggression during the time of the coronavirus, I emphasize how Ethiopian Israelis still fear for their safety, particularly in their encounters with the police. The AEJ, along with several other NGOs, wrote a letter to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan in an effort to ensure that officers, who have been given more flexibility and freedom to go into the streets during the corona crisis, do not employ more force toward a population that already sufferers from police aggression.

In another development, as a result of AEJ’s formal complaint to Israel’s Police Ombudsman, the police will be taking disciplinary action against a police officer: On April 5, 2020 the Israel Police Ombudsman replied to AEJ’s formally filed complaint about an Israeli police officer’s destructive social media campaign to defend the police officer who shot Solomon Tekah (indictment proceedings have not yet concluded). The police’s response went on to say, “…in the circumstances, it was found that the police officer, although well-intentioned, had violated police regulations by expressing her public opinion on social media, and therefore the designated police authority found your complaint was justified and has advised disciplinary action against the police officer.” AEJ will be following-up!

With regard to the socio-economic fallout, many in the Ethiopian Israeli community have been laid off or placed on unpaid leave these past weeks due to the coronavirus crisis. AEJ is particularly concerned, as there is less government and NGO assistance available to them, such as for vulnerable single-parent families. I told the Media-Line: “A lot of Ethiopian Israelis were employed in jobs that didn’t require degrees…. After this is over, more people will be unemployed than the average among the population.”

With Israel’s new coalition government there is a very real possibility that Gantz, Blue and White’s leader, may appoint MK Pnina Tamano-Shata to an influential position and possibly a Minister.  MK Pnina Tamano-Shata is a strong advocate for equal opportunities, and the AEJ looks forward to working with her and other MKs in the Knesset to address the aforementioned issues of police aggression, education and employment.

Now more than ever, as the community’s veteran national Ethiopian Israeli advocacy organization, AEJ relies on your dedicated support during the coronavirus, as we adapt our year-round vital advocacy role on behalf of the Ethiopian Israeli community.

Keep safe and healthy,
Shlomit

Executive Director, AEJ