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Teen Murder Stuns Rehovot Ethiopian Community
"Considered "intelligent," "funny" and, most of all, "quiet" by members of his Rehovot community, the 16-year-old Ethiopian boy, who was remanded Sunday for the murder of Ma'ayan Sapir, 15, has set in motion a flurry of debate about the nature of violence within the Ethiopian community."
Sapir was buried Sunday a few kilometers from the scene of the crime, as Ethiopians there struggled with how and why such violence could emerge from their ranks.
"It is a very, very difficult tragedy, and everyone here is blaming themselves," said local resident David Elazar. "It is all anyone can talk about, and we are struggling to cope with how this came to be."
Sapir's severely beaten, nude body was found Friday in the yard of the city's ORT high school. She had left her parents' house at 8 p.m. the night before and taken a shortcut through the school on her way to the shopping mall. The murder suspect, who was on an unsupervised vacation from a juvenile detention center, was in a drug-induced state when he assaulted and killed her, said police.
"This won't just be talked about as one teenager killing another," said Batia Eyob, director of the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jewry (IAEJ). "We are talking about an Ethiopian teenager who killed a non-Ethiopian."
Although Eyob said she felt awful that such tragedy occurred, she noted that it was unfortunate that it was "somebody outside the community who has to become a victim for the issue to get attention."
She added that similar crimes have occurred before but few outside paid attention because they stayed within the Ethiopian community.
The IAEJ has been tracking crime among Ethiopians since 1996, when Ethiopian youths committed 139 crimes or 1.2 percent of all the files opened against youths. By 2004, Ethiopian youth had been arrested for 933 crimes, 4.1% of the 22,839 committed.
"For us, this incident is very shocking," Eyob said, "but unfortunately not surprising, because the issue of youth at risk and juvenile delinquency... is a time bomb that has just been ticking. Ethiopian youths are lost in an Israeli society that has no place for them."
Shlomo Molla, a senior consultant to the Ethiopian immigration department at the Jewish Agency, said that much of the problem stemmed from the difficult transition from nomadic life in Ethiopia to modern Israeli society. "The culture shock is too much for them," he said. "Men, women and families have lost their status and important roles."
The pressure to conform to Israeli society and learn the language distances many young Ethiopians from their families, Molla said.
Eyob agreed. "Parents have lost total authority over their children," she said.
To remedy the situation, she said a new approach needed to be implemented. She claimed that previous committees have been ineffective and that organizations should focus on giving young people a positive role model with which they can identify.
"Give them hope," she said. "These kids don't have hope and when you don't have hope, you don't care about yourself or other people.""
Source: Sheera Claire Frenkel. Teen murder stuns Ethiopian community. JPost.com (29 May 2005) [FullText]
Sapir was buried Sunday a few kilometers from the scene of the crime, as Ethiopians there struggled with how and why such violence could emerge from their ranks.
"It is a very, very difficult tragedy, and everyone here is blaming themselves," said local resident David Elazar. "It is all anyone can talk about, and we are struggling to cope with how this came to be."
Sapir's severely beaten, nude body was found Friday in the yard of the city's ORT high school. She had left her parents' house at 8 p.m. the night before and taken a shortcut through the school on her way to the shopping mall. The murder suspect, who was on an unsupervised vacation from a juvenile detention center, was in a drug-induced state when he assaulted and killed her, said police.
"This won't just be talked about as one teenager killing another," said Batia Eyob, director of the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jewry (IAEJ). "We are talking about an Ethiopian teenager who killed a non-Ethiopian."
Although Eyob said she felt awful that such tragedy occurred, she noted that it was unfortunate that it was "somebody outside the community who has to become a victim for the issue to get attention."
She added that similar crimes have occurred before but few outside paid attention because they stayed within the Ethiopian community.
The IAEJ has been tracking crime among Ethiopians since 1996, when Ethiopian youths committed 139 crimes or 1.2 percent of all the files opened against youths. By 2004, Ethiopian youth had been arrested for 933 crimes, 4.1% of the 22,839 committed.
"For us, this incident is very shocking," Eyob said, "but unfortunately not surprising, because the issue of youth at risk and juvenile delinquency... is a time bomb that has just been ticking. Ethiopian youths are lost in an Israeli society that has no place for them."
Shlomo Molla, a senior consultant to the Ethiopian immigration department at the Jewish Agency, said that much of the problem stemmed from the difficult transition from nomadic life in Ethiopia to modern Israeli society. "The culture shock is too much for them," he said. "Men, women and families have lost their status and important roles."
The pressure to conform to Israeli society and learn the language distances many young Ethiopians from their families, Molla said.
Eyob agreed. "Parents have lost total authority over their children," she said.
To remedy the situation, she said a new approach needed to be implemented. She claimed that previous committees have been ineffective and that organizations should focus on giving young people a positive role model with which they can identify.
"Give them hope," she said. "These kids don't have hope and when you don't have hope, you don't care about yourself or other people.""
Source: Sheera Claire Frenkel. Teen murder stuns Ethiopian community. JPost.com (29 May 2005) [FullText]
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