JERUSALEM (JTA) — Some 300 Ethiopian students and parents protested against their segregation in a Petach Tikvah elementary school, as nearly 2 million Israeli children began the school year.
The protesters marched Thursday from the Nir Etzion School to City Hall carrying signs reading "Stop the ghetto" and "stop the segregation." The students refused to enter their classrooms at the school, which is made up of nearly all Israeli children of Ethiopian descent, according to Ynet.
The parents believed that the city had agreed to integrate the children into other city schools, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Tzipi Livni, head of the opposition Kadima Party, attended the protest, calling it "the struggle for all of us in Israel," the Post reported.
