VARIOUS: Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews call Israel "racist" for closing door on emigration of remaining community in Ethiopia

Record ID: 454843

  • Title: VARIOUS: Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews call Israel "racist" for closing door on emigration of remaining community in Ethiopia
  • Date: 18th December 2007
  • Summary: (AD1) GONDAR, ETHIOPIA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FALASHA MURA AT CAMP IN GONDAR CLOSE OF WOMAN CRYING PEOPLE ATTENDING CLASS AT BETA ISRAEL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER TEACHING HOW TO USE A REFRIGERATOR CLOSE OF TOILET SEAT VARIOUS OF ETHIOPIANS ATTENDING SCHOOL TO PREPARE FOR IMMIGRATION TO ISRAEL
  • Embargoed: 2nd January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA9YZVEWQPVDQYDG7RPA1QXTVMQ
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews call on the Jewish state on Tuesday (December 18) to airlift their relatives remaining in Ethiopia amid recent reports of policies of "apartheid" against the community in Israel.
    A few hundred Ethiopian Jews marched on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office in Jerusalem to voice anger over a government decision to forbid emigration of the remaining community in Ethiopia, who say their Jewish roots entitle them to live in Israel.
    The decision drew even more anger amongst the community's members in Israel amid a recent reports that a school in central Israel had been keeping four students separate from the rest of the student body during class time and recess.
    The protesters chanted 'mother, father', and waved banners reading 'Bring them home!' Some have accused the Israeli government of complicating and delaying the emigration of the community because of their skin colour.
    Known as "Falasha Mura", the descendants of Ethiopian Jews have reverted to Judaism since their late 18th and 19th century forbears converted to Christianity, sometimes under duress.
    Tens of thousands of practising Ethiopian Jews or Falashas -- which means "outsiders" in Ethiopia's Amharic language -- were airlifted to Israel in dramatic, top-secret operations in the 1980s and 1990s after a rabbinical ruling that they were direct descendants of the biblical Jewish Dan tribe.
    By 1998 Israel said it had brought all of Ethiopia's Jews home to the Jewish state but another rabbinical ruling that year complicated matters by also recognising as Jews those Falasha Mura -- converted outsiders -- who revert to Judaism.
    That spawned a special law allowing Falasha Mura with immediate relatives in Israel to immigrate, stopping short of recognising them under the 'law of return' which gives Israeli citizenship to any Jew from anywhere in the world.
    Since the law was passed small numbers of Falasha Mura every month have been emigrating to Israel.
    But now Israel -- a country built on immigration which says it houses about 110,000 Israelis of Ethiopian descent -- has finalised a list of the last to be brought in.
    That would leave thousands -- estimates range from 8,000 to 16,000 -- in Gondar's sprawling, filthy camp and the surrounding villages. Moreover, recent reports are raising concerns that Ethiopian officials are considering shutting it down.
    Many people in the camps have been waiting for years in cramped mud shacks with no running water or basic sanitation, depending on food donations to survive. Families have been split up, only some of their number allowed into Israel.
    Israel has criticised the volunteer groups and charities that have been supporting the camp at Gondar, saying they raised false hopes for thousands of Ethiopians -- many of whom have no connection with the Falashas.
    The Falashas have been an isolated group ever since they emerged in the region in pre-Christian times.
    Ancient records showed they were barred from owning land and hardly ever married outside the community. In 1668, the country's then Emperor Yohannes I issued a decree ordering them to live apart from Christians in their own village.
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