JCRC Strongly Rejects Violence Against African Migrants In Israel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2012

Contact:
Jim Morgan
(617) 457-8644

JCRC Executive Director Jeremy Burton released the following statement today:

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston joins Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in sharing their rejection of all physical and verbal violence against African migrants in Israel. As the Foreign Ministry said in its statement: “No person has the right to violate the law and resort to violence against others, certainly not to endanger lives, for any reason whatsoever. Law and ethics prohibit any injury to the other, the guest and the foreigner. Jewish history compels us to take exceptional caution on these matters.”

We are particularly dismayed that Israeli citizens of Ethiopian origin, many of whom crossed Sudan as refugees, have been subjected to racially motivated abuse in their own homeland of Israel. We affirm and support Israel’s aspiration to ensure equal rights for all its citizens and praise the government’s desire to meet the challenges of the migrant crisis in accordance with Jewish values and international law.

While we abhor all violence against people of African origin, JCRC of Greater Boston has particular sensitivity to the challenges facing Ethiopian Israelis. We have collaborated with Ethiopian Israelis, from advocating for their Aliyah to supporting their absorption and integration into Israeli society. Along with Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Haifa Municipality, and Ethiopian Israeli activists, JCRC has spearheaded Shiluvim, working to empower the Ethiopian Israeli population in Haifa through education, economic development, and advocacy. In conversations with our Ethiopian partners, both in Haifa and throughout Israel, we affirm our desire as a diaspora community to support the Ethiopian Israeli community in becoming independent, equal partners in securing the Zionist dream.

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The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC) is the representative voice of the organized Jewish community. Comprised of 40 constituent organizations, JCRC serves as a catalyst for building a strong and vibrant Jewish community in Boston and around the world; advocates for a safe, secure, Jewish, democratic state of Israel; and promotes an American society that is democratic, pluralistic and just.