At a press conference held in Tel Aviv, the Ethiopian protest leaders presented their demands from the government and state authorities.

Among other things, protest leaders called to prosecute the police officers accused of the beating of Damas Pakada, an Ethiopian Jewish soldier who was brutally assaulted in Holon earlier this month. 

Leaders denied reports of a mass planned protest for Tel Aviv Sunday night, after police sources stated to Walla! News that a large and violent protest was expected and that riot dispersal measures were being planned in advance. 

“This is a provocation and an attempt to play with deep wounds, the pain and anger we saw last week,” a spokesperson for the demonstrators, Inbar Bugale, stated to the press. 

“We stress,” explained Bugale, “that we do not take responsibility for what will happen at this rally.”

“We demand to cancel it.”

“It’s part of the tactics of the police, unfortunately,” Gadi Yivarkan, another of the leaders of the protest, added. “Instead of understanding the pain of the Israeli public, not only of the Ethiopian community, the police use us and blame us as ‘illegitimate,’ and say we are unruly and violent.”

“This is not the goal,” he stressed. “There will be no demonstration today “

A counter-protest in Tel Aviv is being arranged by policemen’s families for next week.