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Beta Israel
Ethiopea and Israel

The black Jews of Ethiopea call themselves Beta Israel (House of Israel) and date back at least to the 14th century. They are also known as the Falasha, which means wanderer or exile and is considered derogatory. The majority lived in Ethiopea until 1984 and 1991, when 35,000 were airlifted to Israel. As a result of those two major immigrations and a continuous stream of immigration into Israel, 60,000 wound up living there by the mid-90's, reaching 74,000 by late 1999. However twenty thousand remain in Ethiopea, where they face a harsh life. Israel is now trying to bring about the immigration of these remnants. Here we track stories related to Beta Israel:

Kids have African-Israeli identity, but Ethiopian parents still foreigners  3/28/04 JTA: "But 20 years after the first major wave of immigration to the Jewish state from Ethiopia, there also are disproportionately high numbers of unemployed and high school dropouts among them. The youth and their parents are a community in transition, the euphoria of their arrival having long been replaced with the hard realities of making a life in modern Israel. “In recent years the economic situation in Israel has been very difficult, but the ones who have suffered most are the Ethiopians,” says Adisu Massala, a former Knesset member who now chairs the United Ethiopian Jewish Organization, an umbrella organization of Ethiopian groups. “They are new to country, have no inside connections when it comes to getting jobs, lack language” skills, he says. “This is a community that came here with nothing.” "

Ethiopians Told to Wait to Come to Israel  1/10/04 AP 

Plan for Ethiopian Immigrants Collapses  5/30/03 Forward: "Meanwhile, Israel-based Ethiopian activists are accusing the JDC and Jewish Agency of racial discrimination for spending more to aid Russian and Argentine communities than the Falash Mara starving in Ethiopia. Neguise sent a letter to the JDC, threatening to "protest in every legal manner against the heads of the JDC and the United Jewish Communities," the roof body of North American Jewish charitable federations. The goal, Neguise wrote, is to make leaders of these organizations aware of "the discrimination against our brethren in Ethiopia." The UJC recently allocated $39 million to aid Argentine Jews. Yet its welfare agency caring for the Falash Mura — the JDC — allocates only $600,000 of its $45 million budget from UJC for those in Ethiopia."

Vote on Ethiopians Exposing Aid Rift  2/21/03 Forward: "The decade-long battle over Ethiopian refugees is shifting to the United States, after the Israeli Cabinet's unanimous vote Sunday approving the immigration of more than 18,000 languishing Ethiopians. At issue is a little-noticed clause in the approved Cabinet resolution that is sparking debate among American Jewish groups over how much aid should be sent to the Ethiopians, who are known as the Falash Mura. The clause calls for an increase in humanitarian assistance to members of the community, made up of people who either converted to Christianity from Judaism under duress or are the descendants of such people." Falasha is a derogatory term, they call themselves Beta Israel. And they are used by the right-wingers in Israel to populate the West Bank and other dangerous areas.

Israel to accept more Ethiopian Jews  2/16/03 BBC: "About 80,000 Ethiopian Jews already live in Israel. Our correspondent says they remain one of the poorest sections of Israeli society."

Israel to allow 20,000 Ethiopians to enter  2/16/03 UPI: "The Interior Ministry's spokeswoman, Tova Ellinson, said some 60,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, but the head of the Ethiopian immigrants' umbrella organization, Addisu Messele, Sunday told United Press International there were 100,000… Some 17,000 Falashmura who will be brought to Israel, under Sunday's decision, have been living in a camp in Addis Ababa for as long as 10 years and were supported by an American group -- the North American Conference for Ethiopian Jewry. Some 3,000 to 4,000 others have been living in the northern town of Gonder… The idea is to bring them over gradually over a period of a year or two and do so "quietly" so that the Ethiopian government would not complain, a well-placed Interior Ministry source told UPI." UPI is owned by the Rev Moon.

Critics Charge Racism As Jewish State Places 'Quota' on Ethiopians  12/28/01 Forward: "Critics are claiming racism is behind what they say is the Israeli government's establishment of a 400-person monthly quota on immigration from Ethiopia — even for those who qualify under the Law of Return. Ethiopian Jewry activists complain that the quota and what they cite as a lack of humanitarian aid from American Jewish philanthropies are doubly offensive because of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent calls for a mass immigration of Jews from Argentina, France, Australia and South Africa. The plight of Ethiopian Jews is being ignored, activists charge, even as Israel and the quasi governmental Jewish Agency for Israel, the main overseas recipient of monies raised by federations within the United Jewish communities system, are investing millions of dollars to encourage immigration from those countries and the former Soviet Union." The drive on Russian Jews is to compensate rising Arab demographics within Greater Israel. See our page on Beta Israel.

Beta-Israel History and Culture  12/24/01 Almaya, Israel: Ethiopian Jewry in Israel, with special attention to recent history, through the time of the immigration into Israel: "The Beta-Israel immigrants found that Israel is not the biblical Holy Land. They did not find what they expected. There was not a steady flow of "milk and honey", nor were Israelis angels. They were in shock from the journey, from the deaths of close family members, the hardship and suffering. Many young people, who left their extended families behind in Ethiopia and trekked alone to Sudan, lost all contact with their families. On top of the existing trauma and shock from the journey and their arrival, began the difficulties of absorption. Israel was a Western country that they did not understand and was very different from what they knew or expected. Knowledge in Israel about Ethiopian Jews, their history, habits, foods, language, way of life and hardships was almost nonexistent. The Beta-Israel absorption difficulties were far greater than those faced by newcomers from Europe, Asia, North Africa and North and South America."

ETHIOPIAN JEWRY PAGE  12/24/01 North American Conference on Ethiopean Jewry: Jews in Ethiopea by Jews in Ethiopea

Falash Mura Crisis Heats Up After Controversial Report  7/12/01 Jewish Telegraphic Agency 

In focus: Shebaa farms  5/25/00 BBC: Israel uses Beta Israel as cannon fodder - "A group of farms close to the poorly-defined border of Lebanon and Syria has emerged as a potential new flashpoint for conflict between Israel and Lebanese Muslim guerrillas…. According to some reports, Israel moved Ethiopian Jews, known as Falashas, to the Shebaa farms in the 1980s."