“Thirty Years of Pain” Interview with Gidon Ambaya: A Community Organizer’s Response to the Protests

7 May 2015

Name: Gidon Ambaya
Age: 47
Neighborhood: Jerusalem
Title: SHATIL Community Organizer for the Ethiopian Community

What does Shatil do to support Ethiopian-Israelis?
We work with local communities around the country. In Ashkelon, Yavne, Ramle, Kiryat Malachi, Hadera, we work to improve the local schools, employment opportunities, health care. We hold conferences and we work with disconnected youth. That’s the first part.

There’s also politicians in the local areas we work with as well. These are volunteers, they’re not paid by the municipality, and they work to advance the community. We do projects with them, advise and consult with them. We try to figure out how they can do what they do better and more effectively.

Were you surprised by the protests that erupted recently?
The problems didn’t surprise me but the protests did. The protests were very difficult for me to watch. It’s the youngest generation. It’s not my generation, it’s not my parents’ generation. These kids were born here, they were raised here, they served in Operation Protective Edge. It was hard for me to see it. The sheer numbers of people who went to the protests, the anger, the pain surprised me. Thirty years of pain.

Do you think there will be positive outcomes to the protests?
It’s hard for me to believe, but I’m hopeful. The government needs to take responsibility for these problems and to turn a new page, to change things. The two sides – the community and the government – need to work together. Otherwise in two years there will be a much, much worse protest and it will be hard to stop it.

My generation and my parents’ generation said thanks for everything. They used to call us very nice and today they are saying we are violent.

It at least encourages those who knew [about these problems] to do something about it and those who didn’t know to learn. I pray that the government and the country will take responsibility for these 130,000 souls.

I’m not saying the government doesn’t invest in the problem either. The government invests too much money, but in the wrong way. If you invest in education you have to start from zero, from the pre-schools. That’s not what they’ve been doing and the results they’ve received … well there aren’t any.

I hope there will be meaningful change but we forget so easily about things here in the Middle East. It’s not simple.

It’s important to point out that the protests were not about housing, employment, education – they were protests against racism. That’s what the people were protesting.