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A video taken in April of 2015 has given the world a perspective into what Ethiopians
living in Israel claim is a constant systemic issue of harassment and excessive force. In the video
Israeli police officer who appears to direct him to turn around. When the soldier does not move
away quickly enough the officer can be seen quickly escalating the situation by pushing the
soldier. As the soldier is pushed back the officer pins him to the wall and begins throwing
punches and knee strikes (Soldier Beaten, CNN, 2015). While the attack appeared to be vicious
and inappropriate I believe that it stems from a culture within police departments in Israel that
This incident inflamed the Ethiopian-Israeli community and became a rallying point for
protests and violent riots in the coming days. Protesters marched through the Israeli capital of Tel
Aviv, and in some of the more violent areas were met by police clad in riot gear with hoses and
tear gas (Soldier Beaten, CNN, 2015). The protests went on for many days until finally calls for
calm from both sides eventually began to work. In the wake of the devastation, leaders in the
Israeli Police Forces must now ask themselves what they can do to ensure that they regain the
The protests that erupted in Tel Aviv have some similar undertones to the ones that
erupted across the United States around the same time in the Black Lives Matter movement. In
an opinion piece authored by David Love of the Atlanta Blackstar, he points out the many
parallels between the beating of the soldier and the death of Freddie Grey that caused similar
riots in Baltimore (Brutality, Atlanta Blackstar, 2015). It is because of those similarities that I
believe leaders in Israel could benefit from reviewing a report prepared in the United States with
the task of rebuilding trust between the police and minority communities.
The report comes from months of work by Barak Obamas Presidents Task Force on 21st
Century Policing. In that report there are numerous recommended changes that the task force
believes will help to repair the damaged relationship between law enforcement and minority
communities. One of the key pillars that the report focuses on is the development of Community
Oriented Policing (COP) programs. According to the task force COP programs use a partnership
between law enforcement and the community to identify proactive techniques that can be used to
address conditions that endanger public safety and wellbeing (President's Task Force, 2015,
P.41). These protests are a great example of a place where community oriented policing could be
The task force also believes that one of the most important keys to rebuilding trust in the
community is transparency. The public has a right to know about the law enforcement actions
being taken in their communities, and if public believes it is being misled that will have an
adverse impact on their relationship with law enforcement. In Action Item 1.3.1 the task force
recommends, "To embrace a culture of transparency, law enforcement agencies should make all
department policies available for public review and regularly post on the departments website
information about stops, summonses, arrests, reported crime, and other law enforcement data
aggregated by demographics. (President's Task Force, 2015, P.12)" If the community has access
to information like that it leaves less up to their imagination, and gives both sides a chance to
open up an informed dialogue about the things that may need to be changed in the future.
One of the issues that can come from a tense relationship between the community and
law enforcement is when the community, after seeing issues like excessive force, may begin
classifying all uses of force as excessive in a kneejerk reaction. A great way to counter that is the
use of citizen's academies. The San Diego County District Attorney's Office runs a 10 week
citizen's academy that give members of the community an opportunity to see what law
enforcement deal with on a daily basis (SD County DA, 2016). That training will give them
21st Century Task Force on Policing and develop programs like the San Diego County District
Attorney's citizens academy, they will be able to rebuild the trust of the community. One of the
primary issues between law enforcement and minority communities is the lack of interaction
unrelated to law enforcement matters. When the only time two entities interact is in a negative
manner there is bound to be tension, and Israel must work to ease that tension and strengthen
1. Presidents Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015. Final Report of the Presidents
Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented
2. Soldier Beaten. 2015. Police Beat Ethiopian-Israeli Soldier, Sparks Protests. NBC.
3. Love, David. 2015. Why the Latest Protests in Tel Aviv is Damming Proof That Brutality
Against Black People is a Global Struggle. The Atlanta Blackstar. Retrieved from:
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/05/08/why-the-latest-protests-in-tel-aviv-is-damming-
proof-that-brutality-against-black-people-is-a-global-struggle/
(http://www.sdcda.org/office/citizensacademy/)