The protestors, led by religious leaders from the Ethiopian community, marched from the Jerusalem Convention Center to the government compound and began a sit-in on the road at the entrance to Jerusalem.
The demonstration turned ugly when police cavalry came to disperse the crowd. One mounted police officer used his horse to trample a protestor. A driver who was unable to bypass the demonstration turned and drove straight into the crowd, injuring another person. The cavalry officer was not identified and the driver was not arrested, according to the Haaretz news service.
Eyewitnesses at the demonstration said neither the police officers on foot nor those mounted on horses displayed any identification, similar to the force which carried out the destruction of the Amona outpost north of Jerusalem in February. The witnesses also said the officers spat at the protestors and pushed young women in the chest to remove them from the street.
Jerusalem police had issued a permit for the demonstration, according to spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby, but the protest turned violent, badly bruising two officers and leaving two others with broken bones.
Demonstrators were protesting what they said were “false promises” as well as a revelation by Channel 2 television news last week that the Health Ministry continues to discard blood donated by Ethiopian Jews. “We are healthy people like everyone else,” said a demonstrator quoted by the Jerusalem Post. “It’s unjust, a terrible affront.”
A spokeswoman for the Health Ministry said the practice of discarding blood from Ethiopian donors stemmed from international guidelines restricting the use of blood from people who have spent significant amounts of time in countries in which there is a high risk of blood-borne disease. The spokeswoman, Inbal Jacobs, cited the example of discarding blood from donors who had spent time in Britain during the outbreak of Mad Cow disease.
Jacobs added that the Health Ministry requires all blood donors to complete a questionnaire to determine various risk factors that would disqualify the individual from donating blood.
“These procedures are not unique to Israel,” she said, adding that the international guidelines were not specific to people from Africa, but rather to those who have spent significant time in countries where AIDS is endemic, such as Ethiopia. Health Minister Yaakov Ben-Yizri has instructed senior ministry officials to examine the possibility of updating Israel's regulations.
A second issue was what the protestors called the government’s "racist policies", which included inequities in salaries paid to Ethiopian rabbis who they maintained were paid less than other Israeli rabbis. In addition, protestors said that government agencies do not invest enough effort in the absorption and integration of Ethiopian immigrants into Israeli society.
The demonstration turned ugly when police cavalry came to disperse the crowd. One mounted police officer used his horse to trample a protestor. A driver who was unable to bypass the demonstration turned and drove straight into the crowd, injuring another person. The cavalry officer was not identified and the driver was not arrested, according to the Haaretz news service.
Eyewitnesses at the demonstration said neither the police officers on foot nor those mounted on horses displayed any identification, similar to the force which carried out the destruction of the Amona outpost north of Jerusalem in February. The witnesses also said the officers spat at the protestors and pushed young women in the chest to remove them from the street.
Jerusalem police had issued a permit for the demonstration, according to spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby, but the protest turned violent, badly bruising two officers and leaving two others with broken bones.
Demonstrators were protesting what they said were “false promises” as well as a revelation by Channel 2 television news last week that the Health Ministry continues to discard blood donated by Ethiopian Jews. “We are healthy people like everyone else,” said a demonstrator quoted by the Jerusalem Post. “It’s unjust, a terrible affront.”
A spokeswoman for the Health Ministry said the practice of discarding blood from Ethiopian donors stemmed from international guidelines restricting the use of blood from people who have spent significant amounts of time in countries in which there is a high risk of blood-borne disease. The spokeswoman, Inbal Jacobs, cited the example of discarding blood from donors who had spent time in Britain during the outbreak of Mad Cow disease.
Jacobs added that the Health Ministry requires all blood donors to complete a questionnaire to determine various risk factors that would disqualify the individual from donating blood.
“These procedures are not unique to Israel,” she said, adding that the international guidelines were not specific to people from Africa, but rather to those who have spent significant time in countries where AIDS is endemic, such as Ethiopia. Health Minister Yaakov Ben-Yizri has instructed senior ministry officials to examine the possibility of updating Israel's regulations.
A second issue was what the protestors called the government’s "racist policies", which included inequities in salaries paid to Ethiopian rabbis who they maintained were paid less than other Israeli rabbis. In addition, protestors said that government agencies do not invest enough effort in the absorption and integration of Ethiopian immigrants into Israeli society.