The recent results of a poll claimed that the majority of Israelis would not object to their child marrying an Ethiopian and would not hesitate to send their children to a school that has a large Ethiopian student body. This is a very interesting and heartening statistic for Israeli society. Ethiopians are not Sephardim, however, they are part of Israeli society's "others" and show that Israel has come a long way since the rampant discrimination and segregation of the 1950s and 1960s.
The next statistic in the poll tells a slightly different story in relation to the integrationist elements of Israeli society. Over half of Israelis stated that they do not have any personal friends of Ethiopian descent. Of course it could be argued that there are not that many Israelis of Ethiopian descent in Israel, but with over 100,000 there should be greater contact between Israelis of Ethiopian descent and non-Ethiopian Israelis.
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