Israel – A help wanted ad published by the LM manpower company, which blatantly tells Israelis of Ethiopian decent to not apply, has caused widespread outrage among Israel’s Ethiopian community, the Justice Ministry, and in the Knesset.
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The ad published by the LM manpower company was seeking workers for Expose, a producer of high-end swimwear, according to a report in Walla. The add states that Expose “does not want Ethiopians”.
Spokeswoman for the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews, Hana El Azar, told The Jerusalem Post that the racist help wanted ad is a larger reflection of the problems facing the Ethiopian community. “There is racism today and before today in the government and in Israeli companies,” she stated, “We hope that this is the beginning of awareness among Israeli companies toward racism.”
Throughout Israeli government there was widespread condemnation of the ad.
Justice Ministry director-general Ami Palmor, who heads an interminsterial task force on racism in Israeli society stated, “If these are indeed the facts, it is apparent case of blatant discrimination and racism, which prevents people from employment simply because of their skin color.” She continued stating, “this is not the first case and certainly not the only case.”
Zionist Union MK Omer Bar-Lev reacted strongly to the ad stating, “It is unacceptable that Ethiopians will be the punching bag for vile racists.”
Bar-Lev continued with a call for new anti-racism legislation. “If there is no legislation that can prevent this racism, this is a badge of shame for Israel, and it is our duty to bring such legislation,” he stated.
In a statement, the swimwear company Expose stated, “this ad was published without our knowledge, we condemn vehemently the ad content and it is clearly contrary to the values of our company,” the statement read, “We apologize if anyone was hurt from the ad”.
The racist ad comes as the Israeli government is taking steps to combat racism. A ministerial committee, chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and charged with advancing the integration of Ethiopian-Israelis into Israeli society accepted a 170-page report on racism towards Ethiopians in late July. The report detailed 53 recommendations for government ministries to implement to combat racism.
Controversy arose on August 1st after the police rejected more than a dozen recommendations of the report. The police argued that they had already implemented these recommendations on their own accord.
On August 8th the ministerial committee agreed to adopt nine of 12 recommendations regarding the police and separately to discuss three other recommendations in coordination with the Prime Minister’s Office, the Attorney-General’s Office, the Finance Ministry, and the Ministry of Public Security.
The three recommendations deal with recording the interrogations of minors, taser usage, and disciplinary measures against police officers that act in a discriminatory or racist manner.
According to Hana El Azar the police’s reluctance to accept these three recommendations will pose challenges to police relations with the Ethiopian community. “The police are not ready to change, if they are not ready to adopt these three policies,” she stated.
In July Prime Minister Netanyahu remarked that racism toward the Ethiopian community was unacceptable. “I am not prepared to tolerate racism in our state. I am not prepared for people to be tripped up by the color of their skin… This befits neither our country, our citizens nor our people,” he stated.
I dont see the problem, let them hire whoever they want. It’s a FREE COUNTRY or at least its supposed to be
No Irish need apply.
This reflects well on Israel. Someone did something stupid and they are getting called out for it.
The newspaper should know better than to run this type of ad as well as the person who put it in!!
No different than the rest of the Mid East. Can’t see too many Israelis gaining employment in their neighbouring Arab countries..