Discrimination Tag Hovers Around The Head Of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
By Okechukwu Okugo
In November 2015, the Israeli government voted to allow the immigration of some 9100 Ethiopians, known as Falash Mura, descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity, many under duress, in the 18th and 19th centuries CE.
But on March 7, 2016, an official from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office came out and announced to the members of Knesset, the cancellation or cessation to implement this lawful vote, with an excuse of budgetary constraints.
This led, on Sunday, March 20, more than 2,000 Ethiopian Jews many of them frail and old, leaning on their canes, coming out to protest against what they called a clear case of unwarranted discrimination. They marched in Jerusalem carrying pictures of these relatives separated from them in Israel for many years.
Some of their signs read:
"Stop the suffering, stop the discrimination, stop the racism." and "Our children, our parents are in Ethiopia."
AFP had reported, how a 30-year-old resident of Northern Israel, an Ethiopian Jew, had been waiting for over 20 years for his father and brother to immigrate, and yet they are still abandoned in Ethiopia. "This is simply discrimination," he had made his sentiments known to the reporters.
Also another resident was quoted as saying, regarding the case:
"The (Israeli) government actively encourages immigration of Jews from France, the United States and Russia, when it comes to Jews from Ethiopia - everyone refuses...It's embarrassing," israelnationalnews.com wrote.
Under the Law of Return guaranteeing citizenship to "all" Jews, but given that such Jews had to prove or clarify their Halakhic (Jewish legal) status as Jews, the Israeli government has the legal obligation of bringing them back to Israel if they want, no matter where they are found on this planet earth.
Yet in the early 1990s many Russian immigrants who couldn't even clarify their Halakhic status as Jews were let in en masse into Israel.
It is then very ironical to see that these Falash Mura, who no Israeli disputes their lineage as Ethiopian Jews, as such possessing a very strong Halakhic status, yet they are not covered by the Jewish Law of Return.
According to israelnationalnews.com, Netanyahu's office continue to say that they are working on bringing to Israel "Elderly, solitary and dependent Falash Mura to ease their condition."
And many rightly asking: when? or is that enough?
Revital Swid, a lawmaker from the opposition Zionist Union also joined in the discrimination accusation against the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, questioning:
"Would the government tell even one Jew from Russia, or Europe, or America who had family in Israel, we don't have the money to bring you here?" she asked, according to the israelnationalnews.com report.
The Biblical figures - King Solomon of Israel and Queen of Sheba from Ethiopia - were no myths or fable stories, as these Ethiopian Jews in existence today have been historically traced to be the descendants of their union. And Israel's Ethiopian community includes some 135,000 people, today.
If truly uniting Falash Mura families is an issue of "humane and social importance," as Netanyahu's office claims, the Prime Minister knows the right thing to do now.
A Jewish descendant is a Jew, no matter the religion or color.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Photo credit: twitter.com.)
Ethiopian Jews carrying pictures of their relatives left behind in Ethiopia for over 20 years, in a protest in Jerusalem on March 20, 2016. Photo source:
(Opening image: Ethiopian Jews in the March 20 protest, in Jerusalem, carrying pictures of their relatives left behind in Ethiopia for over 20 years now. Photo credit: www.alamy.com)
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