"From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia I will bring My worshippers, the daughter of My dispersed ones and they shall bring My offering." - Zeph. 3:10

Justice Ministry Apologizes For Allegedly Racist Statement About Ethiopians

2003-03-04

By Dan Izenberg

The Justice Ministry on Wednesday apologized and said it would correct its response to a lawsuit filed against the Education Ministry by an Ethiopian family whose son was barred from learning in a Hadera state religious elementary school because of his ethnic background.

The story of the allegedly racist state document appeared in the Hebrew press on Wednesday and generated angry responses, including from Immigration Absorption Minster Tzipi Livni.

The parents of six-year-old Lior Bugla sued the Education Ministry, the Moriah school, and the Hadera Municipality for NIS 1 million after the school rejected Bugla’s application, even though many of his kindergarten friends had enrolled there.

At the time of the application, the school explained that it did not want to upset the ratio of Ethiopian to other children, which it said should not exceed 20 percent to 25%.

The Buglas’ lawyer, Eli Sa’adon, charged that the policy is racist.

In its reply to the lawsuit, a Central District Attorney’s Office lawyer wrote that “members of the Ethiopian community have poor learning abilities, which do not improve the longer they live in Israel.

“The principal explained to the father that the boy was not accepted because of the quota policy, whose aim is to preserve an (ethnic) balance that will help close the (educational) gaps. Research in Israel and abroad has proven that there is a link between low socioeconomic level and poor learning abilities.”

The state also cited a study by Tel Aviv University indicating that the performance of Ethiopian children in Hebrew and arithmetic is the worst in all the grade levels and does not improve the longer they live in Israel. These findings apply to second-generation Ethiopian pupils (too).”

On Wednesday, in response to the outcry generated by its written defense against the lawsuit, the Justice Ministry spokesman wrote that “there was no intention of hurting the plaintiff or anyone else in the Ethiopian community. The State’s Attorney’s defense was based on information from the Education Ministry, which explained that the aim of the policy was not to discriminate against certain students but to improve their circumstances.

“The policy of the Education Ministry is to prevent a situation in which there will be schools made up entirely of Ethiopian students and to improve their educational and pedagogical opportunities by way of integration.”

The Justice Ministry wrote that although the policy of integration would continue, the quota system had already been abolished.

However, it concluded that “there had been a foul-up in the text of the statement and that the Central District Attorney’s Offices wishes to apologize to the plaintiffs and the entire Ethiopian Community. The District Attorney’s Office will ask the court to file a corrected response in the case.”