Prosecutors and public defenders have been instructed to report any suspicion Israeli law enforcement personnel behaving in an illegal or discriminatory manner toward Israelis of Ethiopian descent.
The order comes from Deputy State Attorney Shlomo Lemberger and is part of his office's efforts to implement the recommendations of a report issued by the Palmor commission, formed in 2016, to reduce police discrimination against Ethiopian Israelis.
The Palmor commission heard testimony about discrimination; exaggerated use of force; and inappropriate behavior by law enforcement officials toward Ethiopian Israelis.
In a letter to the head of the Investigations Department in the Israel Police, the country's district attorney offices and head of the Israel Police Prosecution Division, Lemberger wrote that the commission prepared its report based on figures that demonstrate that more investigations are opened against suspects of Ethiopian descent than for the population at large and that Ethiopian suspects are more likely to be indicted.
Lemberger said that according to the Palmor report, the number of both investigations involving Ethiopian suspects and indictments served against Ethiopian suspects in 2015 was more than double that for other sectors of the population.
The report also states that in 2015, three times as many police files were opened for Ethiopian minors as were opened for minors of other ethnic backgrounds, and four times as many indictments were served against Ethiopian minors as were served against minors from other backgrounds.
