Today The Tebeka Association sent to the Prime Minister and to the President of the Supreme Court a letter of objection to proposal to amend the Prohibition of Discrimination in Products, Services and Entry into Places of Entertainment and Public Places Law (Amendment – Harm to Religious Belief), 2022.
Unfortunately, we are witnessing in this evening the illegal phenomena of discrimination and racism against the Ethiopian Jewish population and wonder how is it possible that an Amendment to the law that would allow the denial of medical service (or any other service) on the basis of religious belief would be consistent with our country’s values of equality and justice. The Amendment to the law is a “slippery slope” that will lead to disaster and damage to sacred values of a democratic country, that is supposed to protect citizens and allow full equality for all its citizens.
The proposal to amend the law contradicts the values of the country as a Jewish and apparently the proponents of the law forgot that there are minorities living among them whose rights are trampled on statements like: “No entry for blacks”, “Ethiopians stink”, “Show a conversion certificate”, etc. are just some of the racist statements that are common in the mouths of people who allow themselves to hurt anyone who doesn’t look like them and now with this Amendment it will be legitimised to continue doing this under the name of religion (!).
The Tebeka Association works with legal instruments and submits lawsuits and petitions on these issues and will use all the legal actions available to do it so the Amendment to the law will not pass.
