A long investigation published by Yedioth Ahronoth’s 7 Days argues that anti-Ethiopian racism inside the Israeli police has not disappeared, only changed form. The story opens with a September 2025 incident in Jerusalem, when police detained two Ethiopian-Israeli boys, ages 13 and 12, over stone throwing, and their mother says their treatment exposed the same old pattern of profiling, humiliation and excessive force.
According to the mother and her lawyer, the older boy was taken to a station alone, denied proper access to his mother, held until 11 p.m., and pressured to confess while the investigator allegedly smoked, cursed and threatened him. The younger brother was later brought in as a suspect too. The mother refused to sign house arrest and a 10,000-shekel guarantee, so the family was made to sleep at the station until court. MK Pnina Tamano-Shata helped get the boys released, and the court rejected the police request to keep them in custody for five more days. Police deny the allegations and say the minors’ rights were fully protected.
The report places the case in a broader history of violent encounters and public protests after the deaths of Yosef Salamesa in 2014 and Solomon Teka in 2019, and after the beating of Damas Pakada. That pressure produced the Plamor Report, which acknowledged institutional racism and recommended reforms such as body cameras, harsher discipline for racist officers and a government coordination unit. Officials say some things improved, including a reported drop of more than 40 percent in the share of Ethiopian-Israeli minors among all juvenile arrests.
But the article says key data on police enforcement against Ethiopian Israelis have not been published since 2023, making oversight difficult. At a Knesset hearing, lawmakers heard fresh complaints of rough arrests, missing body-camera footage and cases closed quickly for lack of evidence. The police later said 2023 to 2025 figures show more use of diversionary and rehabilitative measures for minors, and the National Security Ministry claimed major progress in recruitment and integration. Yet activists and former officials quoted in the piece said the core problem is systemic profiling, especially in street encounters, where officers judge people by appearance rather than conduct.
The article closes with two additional examples, one in Ashkelon, where police allegedly stormed the wrong home and pointed a gun at a 17-year-old, and another in which a man from the community says he was falsely treated as a suspect after a bar mitzvah. The Knesset committee demanded updated enforcement data and a follow-up session, but the investigation says no meaningful follow-up has taken place.
