Israel acts to calm Ethiopian Jews

Israel on Monday admitted "mistakes" in dealing with its Ethiopian community as top officials sought to ease tensions after clashes erupted during protests over alleged police brutality and discrimination.

Last week, years of simmering anger within the Ethiopian minority exploded into anger during a protest in Jerusalem sparked by a video showing two police assaulting an Ethiopian soldier in uniform.

A second protest in Tel Aviv on Sunday also deteriorated into violence, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to schedule urgent talks with community leaders as well as with the soldier, Damas Pakada.

The talks began around midday on Monday, public radio said.

At Sunday's protest, police used stun grenades, water cannons and pepper spray to disperse a crowd of several thousand Ethiopian Israelis.

Protesters threw stones, bottles and chairs, injuring 55 police officers.

Forty-three people were arrested, police said, and 19 would face charges of rioting and attacking officers later on Monday.

Twelve demonstrators were also hurt, police said, although the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.

The Tel Aviv protest was one of the most violent in Israel in years, and raised fears of further confrontation with the country's 135,000-strong Ethiopian Jewish community.

The community, which immigrated in two waves in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, has long complained of political and economic marginalization.

"We will continue to fight but without violence," said Benny Malassa, 41, who took part in Sunday's protest.

"We only want people to hear us, for the people of Israel to hear our pain," he told AFP.

"I love this country ... but today I feel more black than Jewish because the state has made us second-class citizens."

Ahead of talks with Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin made a first gesture, describing community members as "some of our finest sons and daughters" and denouncing their treatment.

"The protesters ... revealed an open and raw wound at the heart of Israeli society. The pain of a community crying out over a sense of discrimination, racism, and of being unanswered," he said. "We have made mistakes. We did not look, we did not listen enough," Rivlin said.

Fentahun Assefa-Dawit, executive director of Tebeka, an advocacy organization for equality and justice for Ethiopian Israelis, said resolving the community's problems should be Netanyahu's top priority.

"We call on the prime minister to take matters into his own hands," he told reporters before heading into talks with the premier.

"We demand him to bring these issues to an end, to establish a committee to investigate everything and plan a way to resolve these issues," he said.