ISRAEL/JERUSALEM/ETHIOPIA: NEW GENERATION OF ETHIOPIAN JEWS ADAPT TO LIFE IN THE PROMISED LAND WHILE STILL HOLDING ON TO THEIR AFRICAN ROOTS

Record ID: 397891

  • Title: ISRAEL/JERUSALEM/ETHIOPIA: NEW GENERATION OF ETHIOPIAN JEWS ADAPT TO LIFE IN THE PROMISED LAND WHILE STILL HOLDING ON TO THEIR AFRICAN ROOTS
  • Date: 24th June 2003
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF EXCERPTS FROM THE FILM 'ZAAKA' ('THE SCREAM' IN HEBREW)
  • Embargoed: 9th July 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Access Restrictions:This media cannot be downloaded as there may be copyright restrictions. Please contact us for more information
  • Location: TEL AVIV AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, ISRAEL / JERUSALEM / ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
  • City:
  • Country: Jerusalem Jerusalem Israel Ethiopia
  • Topics: Quirky,Religion,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA5X4LZIFTBHPEUNGNDSUQNIL1X
  • Story Text: Twelve years after their parents emigrated to the 'Promised Land', a new generation of Ethiopian Jews is adapting to life in Israel, but still clinging on to their African roots and culture.
    Israel is currently home to 80,000 Ethiopian Jews.
    It's the first day of Spring in Israel.
    On the beach of Tel Aviv, the country's economic capital, war and bloodshed are pushed into the back of people's minds as they try to enjoy their day and just relax.
    Desta Damtew loves days like today.
    He's an Ethiopian Jew who arrived here when he was 11, a day he'll never forget.
    "One day, we were told: 'you're going to Israel today.' It was totally unexpected. We were panicked completely. We hadn't prepared anything. People were scrambling to get into the buses. It was total chaos," he recalls.
    In 1991, a few days before the fall of Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime, Israel organised an operation of spectacular proportions.
    Its code name was Operation Solomon; its objective was to take the remaining Ethiopian Jews to the Promised Land farmers who lived in the north of the country.
    Tel Aviv - 12 years later. We're in Rasta, a nightclub in the city centre, a favourite meeting place for young Ethiopian Jews. The music they put on here is Ethiopian or Black American.
    It's hard to recognise the children of farmers who came from the Ethiopian highlands in these hip youngsters.
    Fikritu Tekeba, An Ethiopian girl says, "When I go out, I'd rather go out with other Ethiopians, because the Whites don't have the same lifestyle as ours. We like things of Black people. But they like music called Trance or techno, which we don't like."
    The latest hits to come out of Addis are wildly popular.
    Eighteen-year-old Mimi sings here every weekend.
    "I always try to maintain my language and my culture. You know, a country where you were born is different to any other," she explains.
    "I love Ethiopians, and I respect them a lot. I am very proud to be Ethiopian."
    A young Ethiopian man adds, "we come here to find our roots. The whites have their community and culture -- and we have ours."
    Given their rural and poor origins, the integration of Ethiopian Jews into the very western Israeli society is considered to be remarkable.
    Ruthy Gourevitch, an Israeli national says, "I Think Ethiopians are very nice and polite people. They don't complain much. We have no problems with them."
    One of the main reasons for the smooth integration is the army.
    At 18, all Israelis have to do military service. For the Ethiopians, the two years spent in the army help to reinforce their sense of national belonging.
    Anthropologist Shalva Weil expounds: "of all the immigrants who've come to Israel in the last twenty years, the Ethiopians are the most loved.
    Many people say 'we just love Ethiopians'. We just had a conversation like that previously. You don't hear this about Russians and Russian immigrants who have been so successful in the Israeli society. Religious fervour-Zionism, I think they are the last Zionists, real Zionists."
    Still -- in 1996, the Ethiopians' trust in their new motherland was cast into doubt.
    They discovered that blood banks systematically threw away blood donated by black citizens fearing AIDS contamination.
    They were outraged.
    The Ethiopian community, which had always been very discreet, took to the streets to express its anger.
    The authorities responded to their demonstration with force.
    But Shalva Weil feels that racism is not a widespread phenomenon in Israeli society.
    "Perhaps there really is discrimination against some Ethiopians. Or perhaps Ethiopians are particularly sensitive about racism because of their own background, and their own embodiment and understanding of different colour gradations, because they themselves don't relate positively to people of darker skin. People from the Sudan, for instance, are blacker than they are. And they don't necessarily see themselves as Black. Although, once they come to Israel, they may adopt American kind of dichotomous categorisation. Black, white.
    Them and us," she says.
    The community suffers from other problems too: 70 per cent of Ethiopian families depend entirely on social welfare. And, when it comes to education, an Ethiopian is only half as likely to finish school as an Israeli.
    Forty-five per cent of parents don't speak Hebrew, making them increasingly dependent on their children, on children who are losing their respect for them.
    "The young people see how things go in the families of their white friends.
    The parents follow their studies, provide help, etcetera.
    But our parents don't know anything. They can't follow what the children do at school, because they don't understand much.
    And the teenagers resent this very much," Desta Damtew reveals.
    Desta was worried about the future of the 80 000 Ethiopian Israelis, and decided to make a film, with 35,000 dollars given to him by an organisation supporting young film-makers.
    Desta plays the main part in Zaaka, the story of a young Jewish Ethiopian who comes home after a long day.
    He goes to bed and imagines his community in ten years time.
    He sees young people ravaged by violence, arms and drugs.
    In the last five years, crime levels among young Ethiopians have gone up considerably.
    One Ethiopian in 10 already has a criminal record.
    The rift is growing between Ethiopian youths and the rest of Israeli society.
    In a few years time, these scenes could become a reality.
    "There are more and more teenagers who have started to think: 'we came here to become Israelis, but it's not working.
    So we're going to start being really assertive. We'll start being really undisciplined. We'll start stealing and beating up people'. They take the Black Americans as role models,"
    Desta Damtew explains.
    Both success and failure that is the outcome of the integration of African Jews into the Hebrew state.
    Nonetheless, 26,000 people in Ethiopia impatiently await the day they'll be transferred.
    They're Christians who recently converted to Judaism.
    They dream of going on the long journey to Israel the promised land, but also and perhaps most importantly an economic Eldorado.
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