from Our Foreign Desk

MORE than 1,000 Israeli Jews of Ethiopian origin protesting against police brutality experienced it first-hand on Thursday when police turned on them.

At least 13 people were injured and two police officers and five protesters were taken to hospital after angry crowds surged towards the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said.

Police fired bursts of foul-smelling water from water cannon and used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters, who replied with volleys of stones and bottles.The demonstration began as a peaceful march near Israel’s national police headquarters.

It had been called after a video clip emerged showing two police officers assaulting an Ethiopian Israeli Defence Force conscript and arresting him.

Among the protesters’ banners were one reading “enough to police violence” and “gestapo” with an Israeli police emblem next to it. 

They also waved banners reading “stop police brutality, stop racism” and “today it’s him, tomorrow it’s you.”

“In Europe they kill Jews because they’re Jews, here they kill Jews for being black,” read one placard.

The protesters chanted “the police are a disgrace.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence against the soldier and pleaded for calm.

“I unequivocally condemn the striking of the soldier from the Ethiopian community and those responsible will be brought to justice, but nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands,” Mr Netanyahu said.

“Immigrants from Ethiopia are dear to us and Israel is making great efforts to ease their integration.”

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch admitted that the officers shown in the video had “brought shame on the ranks of the police.”

After the emergence of the footage earlier this week, national police chief Yohanan Danino pledged a crackdown, saying that police “would not tolerate such unacceptable behaviour.”

He also pledged to set up a team to investigate the community’s grievances. Israel’s community of Ethiopian Jews numbers about 120,000 out of a population of more than 8 million. They began moving to Israel after chief rabbis determined in 1973 that the community had Biblical roots.