The Falasha in Israel ... an electoral paper and a demographic balance

Mohamed Mohsen Wedd - occupied Jerusalem

After the 47-year delay, the Supreme Council of Rabbis of the Falasha (immigrants from Ethiopia) reflects their Jewish roots according to biblical teachings, internal conflicts in Israeli society with religious and societal issues, which are covered up by fueling conflict with the Palestinians and waving the Iranian nuclear scarecrow.

This recognition comes as a result of the repercussions of the protests that continued for weeks and were exploded by the Falasha community in 2019, due to the recent killing of two young men by Israeli police bullets.

These protests deepened the crisis of relations between the Israeli establishment and the Jews with Ethiopian immigrants, and increased the state of frustration among the "Falasha" community, which demanded the cessation of the policy of religious, social and institutional racial discrimination against it.

The community called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek the release of the Israeli of Ethiopian origin, Avraham Mengistu, who is being held by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip.

In light of the protests, voters of Ethiopian origin punished the Likud party and abstained from voting for it in the Knesset elections last September. Consequently, Netanyahu approached the flashes to absorb their popular anger and win them over in the elections, as the candidate put Gadi Rubban of Ethiopian origin in a high position on the Likud list.

Bringing and suffering
The number of flashes is 170 thousand, and about one hundred thousand of them are entitled to vote in the elections. They have remained, for 47 years, hostage to the procedures of the Council of Rabbis to prove their Jewish origins, during which they received discriminatory treatment from the biblical religious and rabbinical institution.

The suffering of the Falashas, ​​who were brought in to be with Russian immigration, continued to struggle to confront the demographic growth of the Palestinians, but the policies of racial discrimination were perpetuated against them.

Despite the policies of marginalization and racism, during the years 2018 and 2019 hundreds of flashes were brought in through files of family unification, while the Netanyahu transitional government approved the recruitment of 1,000 immigrants from Ethiopia out of eight thousand waiting in the cities of Gunder and Addis Ababa.

The Supreme Council of Rabbis' recognition of the Jewish immigrants ’immigration revokes an old document that questioned their Jewish roots, imposed severe and sophisticated procedures to ratify their Judaism, and was also resettled to the suburbs and residential neighborhoods cut off from Jewish residential neighborhoods.

Migration and discrimination
The rabbis adopted discriminatory religious policies against the Falasha, despite a fatwa issued by Rabbi Ovadia Yusuf, the spiritual leader of the Shas Party and Eastern Jews, where his party sought in the mid-nineties of the last century to win the Falasha in the elections and obtain their votes, and stressed the Jewish roots of these immigrants, but the fatwa that came contrary to The fatwa of the Ashkenazi rabbi Shlomo Goren.

Amid this religious debate, the government worked - in cooperation with the Jewish Agency and the American Association of Ethiopian Jews - to transfer the flash from Ethiopia to Israel through six immigration campaigns, the first of which was in 1977, when about 2,500 people were brought in, and the second immigration process took place in 1982, bringing in about 25,000 .

Tel Aviv continued campaigns of recruitment of flashes in the eighties of the last century to enhance the Jewish character of the state and also in order to resolve the demographic balance in favor of Jews in historical Palestine, and was brought about thirty thousand flashes from the region of South Sudan.

The recruitment of flash Jews, which were politically motivated and viewed as reserve votes by some Israeli parties, did not stop, and with the beginning of the Russian emigration to historical Palestine, about twenty thousand flashers were brought in, and in 2012, eight thousand were brought in compared to about a million Russians during the odd decade.

Discreetly and discreetly
The Council of Rabbis concluded the announcement of the recognition of the flash two months ago for fear of opposition from some of the renewed Jewish and Zionist parties that question the Jewish roots of those who were brought in from Ethiopia.

The announcement coincided with the statements of the Israeli chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yusuf, who attacked immigrants from the countries of the former Soviet Union, as they voted for the "Yisrael Beiteinu" party led by Avigdor Lieberman.

Ore Elkayam, an Israeli TV correspondent (KAN), attributed the confidentiality of this recognition to the electoral scene in which Israel is living, and the ruling party's (Likud) fears of a backlash and opposition to this recognition that Netanyahu sought to use in his election campaign.

The correspondent explained that this historical recognition comes in the wake of the disclosure of the racist approach in religious services systems even towards immigrants, especially the flash, known as the "Beta Israel" community.

He pointed out that the true test of the rabbinical rabbi canceled the approach that had prevailed for decades, and made sure that the directive to cancel the Jewish skin-based tests had been fully implemented, and that strict measures were taken against any racial disclosure of religious services systems.

He believes that tens of thousands of Ethiopian immigrants have no confidence in the Supreme Council of Rabbis, and exclude that this recognition contributes to the abolition of the policy of discrimination, prejudice and exclusion from the Jewish community, despite the Israeli establishment's attempt to adopt the preferred discrimination policy in favor of the flash.

For his part, Rabbi Sharon Shalom, head of the International Research Institute for Ethiopian Jews at the Una Academic College in Tel Aviv, seemed more clear when he said that "there is no substantive meaning for the Supreme Council of Rabbis to recognize the Ethiopian Jews."

The Falasha rabbi emphasized that this recognition would remain empty of any content, in the event that the policy of racial discrimination against Jews of Ethiopian origin continues, which is the racist culture rooted in Israeli society because of black skin.