Now that summer is here (and elections are in the air), the Israeli Left is rushing to piggyback on a convenient social protest. Religification, the nation-state law, surrogacy for single-sex couples – anything, including tailgating on a protest that is completely justified, like that of the Ethiopian Israelis.
The Left won't stop at participating in the demonstrations and portraying them as proof of its solidarity with and deep commitment to the weak. It will also exploit it to explain how racist, oppressive, primitive, and corrupt Israel has become. In a wave of articles and reports, it will point the finger where it always does: at the Right, preferably the religious-settler camp, which unlike the Left, is supposedly insensitive to the disadvantaged.
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Playwright Shmuel Hasfari scolded the Right and compared the death of Solomon Tekah to Hamas' kidnap and murder of three Jewish teens in 2014; Rami Hod from the Berl Katznelson Center lamented the "anti-social" religious Right that "preaches that 'the people of Israel are brothers' but mostly is worried about itself;" and Ma'ariv columnist Dr. Revital Amiran stated that the Right's "moral bankruptcy has been exposed" and that "it has no social agenda in its bag of tricks."
Signs and presence at a demonstration are signs of solidarity, but they aren't the only criterion by which commitment to society is measured. Here are a few more: Most of the immigrants from Ethiopia live in right-wing cities that bear most of the "burden" of taking in mass waves of aliyah: Netanya, Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Kiryat Malakhi, and Kiryat Gat most notably. Even small, "racist" Afula is home to more Ethiopian immigrants than Tel Aviv, where fewer than 3,000 live.
When it comes to education, the numbers are even more shocking. The national-religious school system, which includes many schools in the "brutal" settlements, is responsible for less than 20% of Israeli public school students and yet no fewer than 43% of Ethiopian Israeli students are enrolled in it. Fifty-one percent of Ethiopian Israeli students are in the secular public school system, which is three times larger. According to data from the Education Ministry published in May, the "disconnected" old elite managed to push these students toward impressive academic achievements and significant progress on standardized tests, as well as a higher rate of high school matriculation. Obviously, there are still huge discrepancies between the Ethiopian immigrants and native-born Israelis, but it's hard to say that the Right, including the religious-settler camp, is evading its responsibility.
And what about informal education or youth movements? Take the "Dawn" project to develop leadership in the Ethiopian Israeli community that was launched by national-religious Bnei Akiva youth movement members two decades ago. In the years it was active, the project worked with thousands of Ethiopian immigrants in dozens of different locations – yes, including the settlements. In the last two years, when more immigrants from Ethiopia started arriving, three new Bnei Akiva branches opened in immigrant absorption centers and the movement is holding its first Amharic-language course for counselors – all without waiting for protests to break out. Last January, religious educational leaders held a special symposium on ways to bolster the Ethiopian community. These are just a few examples.
I'm happy that the Left is lining up alongside the Ethiopian Israeli community during their well-publicized demonstrations, but I would be happier to see left-wing leaders active in the periphery, far from the TV cameras, as a matter of course, without being promised complimentary mentions in oped columns.
