The Jewish community of Ethiopian origin calls for the transfer of thousands of relatives remained in the country, fearing for their safety
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An endless debate ranks Israel in the favor of a distant war, Ethiopia. “The Alya now!” “Bring our brothers!” Hundreds of Israelis of Ethiopian origin demonstrated on Sunday, November 14, under the windows of the Prime Minister. They ask Israel’s transfer of members of their families waiting to leave this country, which is damaged in a fratricidal war.
Among the protesters, GeByal Getahun, 42, pianote on his phone. Friday, Sabbat’s Eve, this worker at a drug factory in Bet Shemesh (center) recommended to his three cousins who live in Addis Ababa, their wives and children, not to leave home, under any circumstances. . They reside in a neighborhood of the Ethiopian capital, where the Jewish agency has funded the development of schools, synagogues and ritual baths in the 1970s.
The Hebrew state then recognized the Judeity of “Beta Israel” (the “Maison d’Israel”), this Ethiopian community that some traditions traveled to the lost tribe of Dan, one of the twelve tribes of ‘Israel. His nationals could benefit from the law of return, which grants citizenship to any Jew wishing to immigrate to Israel. In 1991, the last major secret operation, “Solomon”, allowed the transfer of 14,000 people in two days outside the “camps” of Addis Ababa and Gondar (North).
Today, the war is still far from Addis Ababa. Gebyal Getahun does not fear for the immediate security of his loved ones. But he presses them to stand in their house near the Israeli embassy. The latter began to evacuate the families of his diplomats on November 7th, to the example of Washington. Mr. Getahun himself arrived in Israel in 1998. His uncle joined him with his wife and two children, five years later. However, two other sons and a girl, Malkamu, Negatu and Terunesh did not satisfy the criteria of the state and remained in Addis Ababa.
“Why does Gebyal Getahun care about his unfortunate cousins? First because he owes him to his uncle, died in 2009, without having seen his children. Then, because he intends to repair what he considers an injustice made to his clan: “All my family is here. There are only my three cousins who stayed behind.”
Tensions mounted by a notch
After the almost total transfer of “Beta Israel”, a pressure continues to practice the state to bring their other parents. They come from the same family lines, remained at the periphery of the Community despite their Christianization, often under the constraint, essentially at the end of the XIX e and at the beginning of the XX e century. Today, these recent immigrants form a large part, except the majority of some 150,000 Israeli originating in Ethiopia.
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