“We just want equality”: perceptions of police, racism, and citizenship in Israel

Abstract

Perceptions of citizenship among minorities may change when a new generation views racism and discrimination by state authorities not as a temporary phenomenon but as an obstacle to full and meaningful citizenship. We illustrate this argument by focusing on attitudes toward the police among Jewish Israelis of Ethiopian descent, a racial immigrant minority. Our quantitative analysis shows that levels of trust in the police among them have substantially declined between 2013 and 2022. In addition, levels of trust among younger Ethiopian Israelis (age group 18–30) are lower than among older cohorts in this community. Our content analysis of media reports about Ethiopian-Israeli protesters indicates a change in how second-generation Ethiopian Israelis perceive their citizenship. On the one hand, a demand for equality based on their belonging to the collective and contribution to the Jewish-Zionist common good, while on the other hand, a rejection of the attempts to obscure institutional racism.