The Ark or Tabot is the Basis of the Ethiopian state Formation
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Falashmura Aliyah as a Cautionary Tale - Opinion -
We can absorb people in distress from all kinds of countries. Some we wouldn't even have to airlift; all we'd need to do is give those here citizenship.
Raviv Drucker Haaretz
A demonstration in Jerusalem earlier this month, calling on the government to airlift Falashmura from Ethiopia.Emil Salman
Likud MKs angered by approval for immigration of only 500 Falashmura to Israel
1,500 protest in Jerusalem against suspension of Falashmura airlifts from Ethiopia
Israel freezes plan to bring 9,000 Falashmura from Ethiopia
In 1993 the government of Yitzhak Rabin decided to go beyond the letter of the law and bring the Falashmura – descendants of Ethiopian Jews who had converted to Christianity under duress – to Israel. Within a few months, they had all been brought over and that painful episode was over.
Except that it turned out that there were a few more Falashmura to bring here, just a few, and then that would be it. In 1998, a group immigrated to Israel when the Netanyahu government decided on a “last and final” operation that brought over the last 3,500 of them. The inflamed wound was healed.
But there had been a small mistake, it seems, because there were yet more Falashmura. The Sharon and Olmert governments agreed to end the tragedy and airlift the very last 17,000 of them here; on August 5, 2008, after great effort they, too, arrived in Israel. This time the government set conditions for this aliyah, which cost an estimated 3 billion shekels: The Falashmura camps in Ethiopia would have to be closed, and the organizations working on their behalf would have to disband. That was to be that. Then it turned out there were still more to come.
Again the government came to the rescue, and on August, 28, 2013, in a festive ceremony, the second Netanyahu government brought what was called Operation Dove’s Wings to a close. The absolutely last 7,000 Falashmura had arrived in Israel, and Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky once again talked about how he was all choked up that this chapter was finally, but finally over.
Or not. Because then Ethiopian-born Avraham Nagosa, who had been promoting this cause for decades and was now a Likud MK, found a few hundred Falashmura who had been forgotten. Well, not a few hundred; actually, there were 1,900 who requested to come to Israel. Wait, no. Not 1,900, that was the number in 2013.
In October 2014 the Interior Ministry said there were really 6,000 remaining in Ethiopia, and now Nagosa and fellow Likud MK David Amsalem want to airlift 9,000 here; through some ugly act of extortion, the two managed to extract a cabinet decision to that effect.
When Yuli Edelstein was immigration and absorption minister 20 years ago, he told me that when a decision had been made to airlift the Falashmura to Israel, an Ethiopian diplomat had told him with a smile, “Invite me to the ceremony for the millionth immigrant.” Edelstein, of course, did not publicly oppose the decision.
When Tzipi Livni was absorption minister, she tore her hair out over the decision to bring over another 17,000 people. But in public she never spoke out against the decision. Other absorption ministers, from Sofa Landver to Zeev Elkin, weren’t too excited at the prospects either, but none of them dared to publicly object. After all, who wanted to be targeted by the people campaigning for the Falashmura?
It’s the same campaign every time, and it always works. They send Meir Shamgar, the former Supreme Court president who heads the Public Council for Ethiopian Jews, to the media, and then the protests begin.
“If they were blond, you would have already brought them here,” yell the angry demonstrators. They "market" to the media an Ethiopian immigrant combat soldier whose father is stuck in a camp in Ethiopia and is at risk of imminent death, and a Jewish state that is apathetic to his plight.
What are the chances of anyone accepting that at this rate, the aliyah of the Falashmura will never end? How reasonable is it that someone will acknowledge that they are actually getting favorable treatment? No blond French or American could immigrate to Israel on the grounds on which the authorities are bringing over the Falashmura. Does anyone even remember that some Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia who are living here – on those few occasions when they expressed an opinion on the issue – objected to bringing over any more of them?
The government should decide that each year it will absorb a specified number of people from distressed countries on a humanitarian basis. "Strong" countries like Israel ought to help weaker countries. There’s no reason to find a shaky Jewish connection for it. We can absorb people in distress from all kinds of countries, including Sudan and Eritrea. Some we wouldn’t even have to airlift; all we’d need to do is give the work migrants/refugees who are already here citizenship instead of hunting them down in the streets and brutally expelling them.
Ah, sorry, I forgot. Those blacks are “cancer,” while the other blacks are Jews.
Raviv Drucker
Haaretz Contributor
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.711234
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
Ethiopian Israelis protest after immigration plan axed | Daily Mail Online
Hundreds of Ethiopian Israelis marched in Jerusalem on Sunday after the government cancelled plans to allow their relatives to emigrate from the African nation, calling the move discrimination.
The Israeli government had in November voted to allow the immigration of some 9,100 Ethiopians known as Falash Mura, descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity, many under duress, in the 18th and 19th centuries.
But on March 7, an official from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office informed members of parliament the decision would not be implemented because of budgetary constraints.
Israelis from the Ethiopian community hold up photographs of their relatives in front of Israel's Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on March 20, 2016 ©Menahem Kahana (AFP)
Police and organisers estimated the crowd at up to 2,000 people for Sunday's march, which ended outside Netanyahu's office.
"Stop the suffering, stop the discrimination, stop the racism," demonstrators chanted, holding signs bearing similar slogans as well as pictures of relatives left behind in Ethiopia.
"Our children, our parents are in Ethiopia," they chanted, marching alongside elderly residents wearing more traditional garb, some leaning on canes.
Antaihe Cheol, a 30-year-old resident of northern Israel, said his father and brother have been waiting to immigrate for 20 years.
"This is simply discrimination," he told AFP.
His friend Ashebo noted that the government actively encourages immigration of Jews from France, the United States and Russia.
"When it comes to Jews from Ethiopia -- everyone refuses," he said. "It's embarrassing."
Netanyahu's office said it was working on bringing to Israel "elderly, solitary and dependent Falash Mura to ease their condition".
But "the latest amendment to the budget law does not enable the government to take upon itself significant budgetary commitments to upcoming years, without regulating fiscal sources", a statement read.
The issue will be discussed in the coming months as part of the budget discussions, the premier's office said.
Netanyahu's office considers reuniting Falash Mura families an issue "of humane and social importance".
Leading the demonstration was MP Avraham Neguise, himself an immigrant from Ethiopia and a member of Netanyahu's Likud party.
Along with MP David Amsalem, Neguise has boycotted all parliamentary votes since being told the government was walking back its November decision, and reiterated on Sunday he would continue doing so until the decree was reversed.
Netanyahu's coalition holds only a one-seat majority in parliament.
Revital Swid, a lawmaker from the opposition Zionist Union, also accused the government of racial discrimination.
"Would the government tell even one Jew from Russia, or Europe, or America who had family in Israel, we don't have the money to bring you here?" she asked ahead of the march.
Previous demonstrations by the Ethiopian community against alleged discrimination have led to violence, but Sunday's march was calm.
Israel's Ethiopian community includes some 135,000 people.
Israel brought the bulk of Ethiopia's Jewish community to the country between 1984 and 1991 under the Law of Return guaranteeing citizenship to all Jews, but the law does not apply to the Falash Mura.
Israelis from the Ethiopian community hold up photographs of their relatives in Jerusalem on March 20, 2016, during a demonstration demanding he uphold the decision to bring their remaining brethren from Ethiopia ©Menahem Kahana (AFP)
Israelis from the Ethiopian community hold up photographs of their relatives in front of Israel's Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on March 20, 2016 ©Menahem Kahana (AFP)
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