Ethiopian Jews in Jerusalem
Ethiopian Jews in JerusalemFlash 90

The Chairman of the Civil and National Service Administration, Sar-Shalom Gerbi, admitted in an interview with Army Radio that there are indeed institutions that refuse to accept national service volunteers of Ethiopian origin.

"Latent racism exists - but it's not like they come and tell me explicitly, 'we won't accept her because she has dark skin,' because, as you can imagine, such an institution would be shut down immediately."

Yesterday, the Chairman revealed at a hearing of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora that discrimination exists against national service volunteers of Ethiopian origin seeking to volunteer at particular institutions.

"Unfortunately, we run into particular groups that are not ready to accept Ethiopian volunteers," he had said.

Nevertheless, when asked by MK Avraham Naguise (who is himself of Ethiopian origin) at which institutions such a phenomenon exists, Gerbi would not elaborate: "I would prefer not to say which institutions refuse to receive Ethiopian volunteers. I say this and I know I am on the air, but it exists," he concluded.