Israel's police chief faced a whirlwind of criticism on Wednesday after he suggested officers would "naturally" suspect minorities, including Israelis of Ethiopian descent, of crimes more than others.

Members of the Ethiopian community in Israel, who account for more than 135,000 of the eight million population, called for police commissioner Roni Alsheich to be sacked after his comments on Tuesday.

"Ethiopian Jews are Israeli Jews in every way," Alsheich told a lawyers' conference in Tel Aviv where he was asked about police violence against Ethiopian-Israelis.

"But every criminology study worldwide shows that immigrants are more involved in crime than others."

He said that young people too were more often implicated in crimes and, that when the two factors were combined, police "naturally" suspected them more than others.

Alsheich also mentioned Arab Israelis, who account for more than 17 percent of the population.

He accepted, however, that there was "over-policing" of Ethiopian Israelis that must be addressed.

The subject is particularly sensitive among Ethiopian Israelis, who have protested against what they see as discrimination and abuse by police.

A spokeswoman for the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews called for Alsheich to resign, saying his comments were "intolerable."

"Not only are we not immigrants as he says, but he also only reinforces stereotypes that portray all young people from our community as delinquents and criminals," Hanna Elazar told AFP.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan defended Alsheich in a statement, saying his comments did not defend "over-policing" or racial profiling of Ethiopian-Israelis.

"He did exactly the opposite and courageously said that there is a problem that the police are addressing," Erdan said.

"We are working with members of the community and their leaders to address the errors of the past."

Police spokeswoman Meirav Lapidot however told army radio that the sensitive topic "should have been explained differently."

Of the 135,000 Ethiopian Jews in Israel, some 50,000 were born in the country.

The community is the result of Israeli authorities eventually officially recognising the Ethiopian Jewish community as Jews, leading to two waves of immigration in 1984 and 1991.

They have alleged discrimination and other types of mistreatment.

A video emerged last year showing an Israeli of Ethiopian origin being beaten by police, setting off a series of demonstrations around the country, some of which turned violent.

SourcE: AFP