On Sunday, Israelis of Ethiopian descent took to the streets of Tel Aviv to protest against systemic discrimination. The demonstrations, triggered by a leaked video showing police officers physically assaulting an Ethiopian Israeli soldier and then filing false charges against him, soon turned violent, with many expressing fears of greater civil unrest to come. The demonstrations have been compared to the anti-police-brutality protests in many of America’s cities, most recently Baltimore.

The rejection of Ethiopian-Israelis’ Jewish identities is antithetical to Israeli thinking of the past 40 years, including that of Israel’s leading rabbis.

Nisreen Salem is an Afro-Palestinian from Egypt who has been mocked due to her skin colour and hair for most of her young life. The 25 year old is one of at least 400 Afro-Palestinians from Nigeria, Egypt, Chad, Senegal and Sudan who live within the walls of occupied Jerusalem's Old City, adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.