The killing of a black Jew sparks protests in Israel

THE VIOLENT protests that shook Israel on July 2nd had all the hallmarks of race riots. A young black man had been shot dead by an off-duty policeman in unclear circumstances. Thousands of Ethiopian Jews took to the streets, throwing stones at police officers, blocking roads and overturning police cars. Their claims of systematic racism and police brutality were met, on the whole, with condescending denial. Politicians chided them for the violence, while issuing vague expressions of sympathy. Few bluntly mentioned the word racism. Media outlets and pundits supporting the government aired conspiracy theories suggesting that left-wing organisations had incited the violence.

Nearly all the Jews in Ethiopia, whose ancestors had lived in Africa for centuries, moved to Israel quite recently. Big airlifts began in the 1980s, when Ethiopia suffered tyranny and famine. A sympathetic Israel welcomed them with open arms, though rabbis had long debated whether the Beta Israel, as they are known, were really Jewish (and therefore eligible for Israeli citizenship). Today there are 150,000 of them in Israel (1.7% of the population).