Falash Mura... Ethiopia's Jews Discrimination in Promised Land

In order to strengthen its presence and influence in Africa, Israel received hundreds of Ethiopian Jews, known as Falash Mura, in last December.

The conflict between the federal government of Ethiopia and the Tigrayan Liberation Front brought unrest inside the African country.

This may gave impetus to transfer the rest of the Falash Mura, whose number is estimated at 8,000 Jews, especially in light of fears of violence reaching the city of Gondar where most of the Jewish community lives in makeshift waiting camps, to Israel according to a recent BBC report.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz welcomed the arrival of 316 Ethiopian Jews to Ben Gurion Airport in December 2020.

"Sarah, my wife and I, greeted them with tears in our eyes when we saw the immigrants, our Ethiopian Jewish brothers, leave the plane and set foot on Earth, the Land of Israel,” said Netanyahu.

Israeli Immigration Minister Benina Tamanu-Shata attended the arrival of Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia, which he called Operation Rock of Israel.

The Israeli Minister of Immigration is primarily an Ethiopian immigrant who was brought to Israel in a secret airlift in 1984, under the supervision of Israeli intelligence.

Falash Mura is the name given to those of the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia who converted to Christianity as a consequence of proselytization during the 19th and 20th centuries. This term consists of Beta Israel who did not adhere to Israelite law, as well as converts to Christianity, who did so either voluntarily or who were forced to do so.

Beta Israel by ancestry, the Falash Mura believe they have just as much of a right to return to Israel as the Beta Israel themselves. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, a major player in the first wave of Beta Israel immigration to Israel, declared in 2002 that the Falash Mura had converted out of fear and persecution and therefore should be considered Jews.

The Falash Mura were brought to Israel for the first time from refugee camps in Sudan, through a series of covert operations in the early eighties of the last century carried out by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, on the orders of the then Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Two major operations were carried out to transfer Ethiopia’s Jews, one in 1984 called the operation called Musa, and it was carried out with the help of former Sudanese President Jaafar al-Nimeiri, and the other operation called "Sheba", and it took place in 1985 when more than 20,000 Flash Mura immigrated from Ethiopia to Israel with the help of former US President George Bush Sr., who was the Vice President of the United States of America at the time.

The year 1991 witnessed more of those operations, as many people were transported by air from Ethiopia to Israel.

Israel is now alleging that the transfer of the rest of the Ethiopian Falash Jews to Tel Aviv is a process of "reunification" between the first immigrants and new immigrants.

Jews of Ethiopian origin differ from the rest of the Jews in the world in several ways, although the Ethiopian stream of Judaism is one of the oldest branches of Judaism.

Israeli laws do not give the Falash Mura the direct right to automatically obtain citizenship once they reach its lands, as is the case with most of the world's Jews. The Falash Mura Jews do not even enjoy the same rights as their Ethiopian counterparts who had preceded them in the evacuation to Israel.

According to Jewish law, Falash Mura do not meet the criteria for obtaining Israeli citizenship due to doubts about the Jewishness of their ancestors.

The issue had been raised for years before the Israeli government pledged in 2015 to transfer all of the Falash Mura community by the end of 2020.

Despite Israel’s keenness to bring in the Ethiopia’s Jews, they suffer from great degrees of marginalization, discrimination and racism within Israeli society. In 2019, angry protests erupted from their side over what they described as “their ill-treatment and police violence against them,” after one of them was killed by the Israeli police .

[caption id="attachment_229351" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Israelis of Ethiopian origin protest in front of policemen over the death of Solomon Tekah, 19, who was killed by an off duty police officer, in Kiryat Haim near the Israeli city of Haifa on July 3, 2019.[/caption]

A report published by the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel in 2017 revealed a number of facts related to the social and economic situation of the Falash Jews, and the discrimination they suffer, as:

• The number of Israelis of Ethiopian origin is about 140,000 people, or nearly 2% of the total population of Israel, more than 85,000 of them were born in Ethiopia.
• The report indicates the relative seclusion and isolation of the Ethiopian Jews, and notes that 88% of marriages take place within the Ethiopian community.
• Only 55.4% of the school's students from Ethiopia obtain a high school diploma, and only 39% of them obtain the necessary conditions to enroll in universities.
• Another study released in 2015 showed that the average monthly income of families of Ethiopian Jews is 35% less compared to other groups in Israel.
• The majority of Falash Jews engage in low-paid jobs that do not require scientific training, such as cleaning and the food sector.
• Media reports indicate that the incoming Falash during the first wave of their migration and even subsequent waves did not master the Hebrew language and were unable to adapt to society despite the integration programs launched by the government.

  [caption id="attachment_229352" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Ethiopian immigrants arrive at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv[/caption]