Israel Slams the Door on the Falash Mura
(Page 2 of 2)
March-April 1999
by Jacqueline White
This emphasis on an untarnished Jewish lineage may, in fact, be a smoke screen. A Refugees International report by former U.S. diplomat Larry Thompson cites sources claiming that as many as 40 percent of the 8,000 Falash Mura now gathered at Addis Ababa may legally qualify for immigration under Israeli law. But Israeli authorities are imposing more restrictive and complex policies on Ethiopians than they are on Jews from other countries, he argues. The contrast to the welcome Israel has extended to Russian immigrants is particularly stark. “In Russia, dozens of Israeli emissaries are searching with magnifying glasses for Jews, half-Jews, quarter-Jews,” notes Yossi Schwartz in Hadassah magazine (Nov. 1998). That level of scrutiny has not been applied in Ethiopia.
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To integrate largely illiterate Falash Mura villagers into Israeli society obviously requires straddling a huge cultural gap. And the reluctance to absorb more Ethiopians may stem partially from the daunting challenges of resettlement: Poverty and unemployment among Ethiopians in Israel are distressingly high. “Attitudes might well be different if the Falash Mura community consisted mostly of computer programmers and engineers and if potential Russian immigrants were mostly impoverished illiterates,” writes Rabinovich.
Still, the Falash Mura are intent on immigrating: They have left their villages and traveled to Addis Ababa expecting to secure passage. They have few other options. Whether or not Israel perceives the Falash Mura to be Jewish, their Christian neighbors in Ethiopia do. And that, Thompson explains, leaves the Falash Mura vulnerable to the persecution endured by Ethiopian Jews over the past several hundred years. Judaic Ethiopians, including the Falash Mura, are commonly called “Falasha”—a derogatory term meaning “stranger” or “immigrant”—by Ethiopians.
And what do they call themselves? The House of Israel.
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