Israeli march protests racism

JERUSALEM, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- About 5,000 people marched through Jerusalem Wednesday to protest racism aimed at Israel's Ethiopian community.

The march began at the Knesset or parliament compound and ended with a rally in Independence Park, Ynetnews reported. Shelly Yachimovitch, head of the Labor Party, Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni and other members of the Knesset endorsed the protest as it started off.

"The Ethiopian immigrants made aliyah for Zionist purposes and lost many on the way to Israel," Livni told Ynetnews. "Now, instead of accepting them we encounter severe racism in the Israeli society and a failure on the government's part in dealing with the matter."

Mulet Hararo, 26, a student who led the march after walking on his own from Kiryat Malakhi to Jerusalem this week, described himself as a member of a "third generation of marchers. He said his grandmother marched from Ethiopia, following "her hope and a 3,000-year dream."

"I am a proud Israeli of Ethiopian decent. I marched with the Israeli flag because Israel is the home of all Jews," Hararo told the crowd in the park. "Israel is also our home. I have no other land. I have marched for this holy land to prove to myself it is mine, to prove to her that I love her. And it has proved me it loves me back."