Last year saw the number of racism complaints more than triple, a report published Wednesday by the Anti-Racism Coordinating Government Unit in the Justice Ministry revealed.
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The data showed that the number of complaints filed in 2020 stood at 1,450 – three times higher than in 2019 when 497 complaints were lodged.
The unit attributed the drastic rise in racist incidents to the health and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the Knesset election campaign that took place at the beginning of 2020.
The data further revealed that 27% of the complaints were filed by Ethiopian Israelis, another 27% by Arab Israelis, 19% by Haredim, and 7% by immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
Some 25% of the complainants reported racist behavior in the public service, 19% complained of racial slurs, 15% of racism at the workplace, 11% reported racial stereotypes in advertising, and 9% complained of discrimination by law enforcement officials.
The unit handed over 41 complaints to the police for further investigation but only 22% of those were resolved. Some 11 complaints were dismissed, three were ruled as unwarrented, another three were transferred to the State Attorney's office, four are still being processed, and only one was being investigated. The police declined to comment about the rest of the complaints.
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