James Walker

LEPSL 520: Introduction to Community Engagement

University of San Diego: Professional & Continuing Education

Israeli Police: A Culture of Intolerance?

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

an Ethiopian-Israeli soldier can be seen walking a bike down a sidewalk. He is stopped by an

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

perpetuate discriminatory and overly-aggressive behavior.

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

trust of the communities they are sworn to serve.

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

used to develop a plan towards rebuilding trust within the community.

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

perspective and hopefully avoid a biased kneejerk reaction to media reports.

If law enforcement leaders in Israel follow the recommendations of President Obama's

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

their ties with their minority communities.

References

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

Policing Services. Published 2015

2. Soldier Beaten. 2015. Police Beat Ethiopian-Israeli Soldier, Sparks Protests. NBC.

Published 2015. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAi2fIZNqyQ&app=desktop).

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/

4. San Diego County District Attorney's Office. 2016. Citizen's Academy.

(http://www.sdcda.org/office/citizensacademy/)