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« on: October 29, 2003, 05:24:25 PM »

In Israel, distress signals from Ethiopians

By Ben Lynfield | Special to The Christian Science
Monitor

RISHON LEZION, ISRAEL – Alimu Ishete was trying to
bridge the divide between Ethiopian Jews and their
adopted country.
During a recent talk in this Tel Aviv suburb, he
brought out a traditional white robe, worn in
Ethiopian villages on Jewish holidays, and picked away
at the krar, an Ethiopian guitar.

His audience of Israeli educators listened closely.
After two decades, it seemed it was the first time
they were really hearing about Ethiopian Jews.

The gap between black and white Israelis seems, with
some exceptions, to be growing. For Ethiopians, it is
visible in impoverished neighborhoods, soaring
unemployment, and the highest high-school dropout rate
of any Jewish group in Israel.

Twenty-six percent of Ethiopian youths have either
dropped out or do not show up for classes most of the
time, raising concerns that the community's current
difficulties may become chronic. Drug use, including
glue-sniffing, is on the rise, and criminal activity,
hardly known among Ethiopians before they came to
Israel, has been growing.

Ethiopian Jews, who number just over 1 percent of the
more than 6 million Israelis, arrived mostly in two
waves: during the early 1980s and then in a dramatic
US-backed airlift a decade ago. Most started almost
from scratch in education and job skills. There were
also cultural differences. "In Ethiopia, children look
down when their teacher talks," Mr. Ishete says, in
contrast to native Israeli children, who look their
teachers right in the eye.

For the Ethiopians, 95 percent of whom were
subsistence farmers, the leap to 21st-century,
first-world Israel was so enormous as to be hard to
grasp, he adds.

But not everyone is sympathetic. Israeli mayors
unabashedly urge the government to keep Ethiopian
immigrants away from their cities.

During a break in Ishete's talk, Masha Aroshes, Rishon
LeZion municipality official, says that more Ethiopian
families due to arrive here are not welcome.

"They are going to a neighborhood which the mayor has
been trying very hard to improve," she says. "It is
just starting to flower. Adding another 35 Ethiopian
families is not right. It impacts on the education
level. In order for the Ethiopians to be properly
absorbed, they should not go there."

That kind of talk is adding to alienation among
Ethiopians, according to Asher Elias, a staff member
at the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews (IAEJ).

"Ethiopians have lots of motivation to become
Israelis, but they are not accepted," he says. "In
jobs, in education, people feel they are discriminated
against because they are black. I'm not saying it is
right or wrong, but it is what we are feeling, and
that is enough."

A low point in the relationship between Ethiopian Jews
and Israelis came in 1996, when it was revealed that
Israeli hospitals had thrown out all blood donated by
Ethiopians. "These were donations to help other
Israelis," Mr. Elias says. "[Ethiopians] said to each
other: 'What do they think? That we are not humans?' "

Habad, one of Israel's stronger orthodox religious
groups, doesn't recognize Ethiopians as Jews or allow
their children into its kindergartens.

The government has taken some affirmative-action
steps, offering mortgages on better terms than to
other groups so Ethiopians can become property owners.
It also pays fully for the university education of
Ethiopians.

Elias says that a strong affinity of Ethiopian youths
for rap and reggae music shows that many are looking
for non-Israeli cultural identities. In the music of
reggae singer Bob Marley, "Ethiopia is the top of the
world, Haile Salasse and the flag of Ethiopia are the
main thing," he says. "So who are these kids going to
listen to, Israeli bands or Bob Marley?"

Israelis are developing a negative image of
Ethiopians, warns Yair Tsaban, who was immigration
minister during the second immigration wave. "The
absorption of the Ethiopians could be a source of
pride for the country," he says. "But if the Ethiopian
immigrants are associated with crime and violence in
the minds of other Israelis, there can be alienation.
People could ask 'Why have they been brought here?' "

Officials at the Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental
organization that helps the immigrants, stress the
positive: There are 1,500 Ethiopians in universities
or colleges, compared with just 100 five years ago.
And things are looking up – the agency, government
ministries, and Jewish communities abroad plan to come
together for a $600 million nine-year program of job
training and improving education for Ethiopian
immigrants.

Perhaps the strongest ray of light is the IAEJ itself,
founded in 1993 as an independent advocacy group. It
works with hundreds of young activists from all over
Israel and, funded mostly by American Jews, lobbies
Israeli politicians. Members of the organization say
it has enabled thousands of students to study in
academic rather than vocational programs. It has also
been instrumental in a rise in the number of
Ethiopians who pass their high school matriculation
exams.

One IAEJ program tackled truancy by forging contacts
between Ethiopian dropouts and "big brothers and
sisters." The program was adopted and expanded by the
Education Ministry as a way of reaching all children
at risk, and now has 15 offices across Israel.

"We don't have a lot to give in terms of valuables and
possessions," Elias says of the Ethiopian community.
"But when we fight for something, it can also help the
other groups that have been left behind
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