Israel Confronts its Own ‘Ferguson’ Race Challenge
Black Israelis feel like second-class citizens and in some ways are. But Israel doesn’t have the U.S.’s baggage.
They are Israelis too.
Photographer: MENAHEM KAHANA/AFPTo some Israelis, a recent police shooting of a black Israeli, and the subsequent violent protests, raises the specter of the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, following the 2014 fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old black man there. Could Israel be having its own Ferguson moment? Perhaps, though Israel’s history of welcoming black Jews gives reason for optimism, if only authorities respond in the right way.
The roots of today’s problems, and its solution, date back to a fall day in 1977, when a small group of young black men gathered outside the office of Israel’s newly elected prime minister, Menachem Begin. They waved homemade signs and chanted in broken Hebrew.