The problem:
More than 200 people gathered in front of the government compound to protest discrimination against Ethiopians. The boiling point, they said, was a recent decision by the Health Ministry to discard donated Ethiopian blood.
The protest:
“We won’t allow our blood to be spilled like this. The Torah says that blood is the soul. How can this country treat us, fellow Jews, this way?” said Gadi Yabarken, one of the protest’s organizers.
The sentiment:
“These problems have been building up for some time, but to find out that they will throw our blood away, for no reason other than racist discrimination, that is too much to bear,” Yabarken said.
The counter-argument:
A spokeswoman for the Health Ministry said that all blood donors who have been in countries such as Ethiopia, where AIDS is endemic, cannot donate blood. She added that the decision to discard the blood was not racist, but medical.
The sting:
“I guarantee you that more than half of the protesters here have never been to Ethiopia…”
The posed solution:
“…and I would like the Health Ministry to explain why it can’t check where we have been and what kind of danger we pose before it discards our blood,” said Kasa Bayisin.
Whadya got: