ETHIOPIANS page 56
an soldier, Assaf Brihon, shot
himself to death while on guard
duty. Family members said Mr.
Brihon had been depressed be-
cause his commanding sergeant
routinely abused and humiliated
him.
This has been a common com-
plaint of Ethiopian soldiers,
backed up by many non-Ethiopi-
an soldiers. While many army
officers and soldiers go out of
their way to help Ethiopians,
many others treat the immi-
grants with condescension —
sometimes tinged with affection,
sometimes tinged with con-
tempt.
Ethiopians complain of being
taken advantage of by soldiers
who dump the dirty work on
them, especially long guard duty.
While Israeli soldiers know how
to look out for themselves,
Ethiopians are timid and ex-
ploitable.
The United Ethiopian Orga-
nizations says 20 Ethiopian sol-
diers have committed suicide in
the last two years — a much,
much higher rate than among
other soldiers. According to the
army, though, the figure is four.
Ethiopians intend to stress
one other issue before the in-
quiry commission — segregation
and underachievement in the
schools.
Knesset hearings into the
matter last year found that de-
spite an effort at integration, a
number of public schools are
nearly all-Ethiopian. In part,
that's because many Israeli par-
ents don't want their children to
go to school with them. Many of
the Jewish Agency's Youth Aliya
boarding schools are likewise
topheavy with Ethiopians.
Only seven percent of Ethiopi-
an high school seniors passed
their matriculation exams in
1994, compared to one-third of
other Israeli seniors. Over 60
percent of Ethiopian elementary
school students were grouped
with "slow learners" in their
classes.
And beyond the specific prob-
lems of blood, army service and
education, there is the casual,
street-level prejudice Ethiopians
say they've encountered over the
years. Their children are often
called "kushi" — a Hebrew pe-
jorative for "black" — by other
children.
Ethiopians have held count-
less protests in the past, espe-
cially over the Orthodox
establishment's early refusal to
recognize their Judaism, and the
state's reluctance to bring over
thousands of their relatives from
Ethiopia because of doubts about
their Jewish status. But all these
demonstrations were peaceful.
But it was the violence outside
the Prime Minister's Office
changed the response to the
Ethiopians' complaints. Gov-
ernment officials rushed to cur-
ry favor with them. Li
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