Pnina Tamano-Shata, MK
ESAT News (December 5, 2016)
An Ethiopian member of the Israeli Knesset said on Monday that there is discrimination against the black jews in the country.
Pnina Tamano-Shata, the first Ethiopian Israeli woman to be elected as member of the Knesset, was speaking at a hearing on the illegal practice of circumcision on babies from low-income families from Ethiopia and Sudan.
A recent investigative report by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) revealed Veteran Israeli mohel, Rabbi Eliyahu Asulin, has reportedly been sending his inexperienced students to practice circumcision on babies from low-income families from Ethiopia and Sudan.
He was filmed saying Ethiopian and Sudanese children are ‘cannon fodder’ for inexperienced students.
“If it had happened to the Jews of Europe, we would be making noise all over the world but we are black, so who cares?” Shata said and angrily walked out of the meeting.
Asulin was also caught saying in the video that “nothing will happen if you make a mistake on the child, they are cannon fodder. There are the usual Ethiopian and the Sudanese, are worse than they are black like Negroes.”
“This is another record of discrimination against members of the community,” said the Chairman of the Immigration and Absorption Committee, MK Avraham Bitten.
Video footage showed Rabbi Eliyahu Asulin, a Chief Rabbinate-affiliated mohel with 33 years of experience, explaining that he forges certificates for his inexperienced students and sends them to deal with the newborn boys of Ethiopian Jewish families.
Thousands of Ethiopian Jews have been protesting against racism they faced in Israel, which they consider their holy land.
Ethiopian Jews have migrated to Israel in their thousands as part of Israel’s plan to take in people of Jewish origin.