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Last update - 10:11 10/12/2007
Petah Tikva to halt funds to schools refusing to enroll Ethiopians
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
Tags: Ethiopians, racism 

The Petah Tikva municipality has decided to halt funding to private schools that refuse to enroll Ethiopian pupils, Army Radio reported on Monday.

The decision comes after a state religious school in the municipality was found last week to have isolated four second-grade Ethiopian students from the other children, teaching them in a separate classroom and scheduling their recess at a different hour.

The school reportedly said the Ethiopian children did not meet sufficient religious standards enough to integrate with the other children.
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Petah Tikva mayor Yitzhak Ohayon told Army Radio on Monday that the municipality's decision is not meant as a threat, adding that he hopes it will help change the city's racist image.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday: "Ethiopian Jews' feeling that they have been wronged is not detached from reality, a reality that we must change."

"These stories compound the general distress felt by the Ethiopian children and the Ethiopian population within the Israeli society," the prime minister said, adding that this feeling is not devoid of truth, and is not isolated to a certain part of the country. "There are problems and there are hardships. This coming January we will approve a new wide ranging program aimed at resolving some of the issues facing Ethiopian Jewry," he said.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also addressed the issue, saying "this is not a problem confined to the four girls who emigrated from Ethiopia."

Livni, who served as absorption minister in the past, maintains close ties with the Ethiopian community in Israel. She added that "there is an entire phenomenon of pure racism in the hiring of Ethiopian immigrants in the job market and the renting of homes to them. This discrimination forced them to concentrate in certain neighborhoods and harmed their integration."

On Saturday, Ethiopian immigrants disrupted a Petah Tikva school board ceremony meant to honor excellent employees. The immigrants were protesting the fact that the ceremony was being held precisely during the same week that the discrimination against the four young girls was revealed.

Dozens of demonstrators arrived at the Petah Tikva cultural center and took over the stage, waving protest signs and shouting their objections, preventing the ceremony from taking place.

Consequently, the Petah Tikva municipality decided to cancel the ceremony.

Related articles:
  • Olmert: Ethiopian Jews are right to feel discriminated against
  • Haaretz.com TV: Segregation at Petah Tikva religious school
  • Labor MK: Put Ethiopian children in secular schools
  • Petah Tikva schools refuse to accept 80 Ethiopian immigrants
  • Report: Ethiopian immigrants earned half of average salary last year
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