ethiopian jews

Ethiopian Jewish immigrants protest against a plan to evict them from an immigrant absorption center in Mevaseret Zion, near Jerusalem, May 1, 2014. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

How the Jewish Agency is throwing Ethiopian immigrants onto the street

By Yossi Dahan (Translated from Hebrew by Shaked Spier) The Jewish Agency for Israel states on its website that its work concentrates on four fields: aliyah (the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to Israel), social action and giving, Israeli experience, and bringing Israel and Jewish communities abroad together. Let us focus on the Jewish…

By Haokets July 18, 2015

Police arrest a protester at a demonstration by Israelis of Ethiopian descent against police in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, May 3, 2015. (Activestills.org)

Beyond racism: What’s keeping Ethiopian-Israelis down?

Racism is a severe problem for the community — and the country — but that doesn’t fully explain the difficulties faced by Ethiopian-Israelis. To the extent that they were protesting against face-to-face racism from “white” Israelis, the thousands of Ethiopian Israelis who raised hell in Tel Aviv Sunday night had more than a legitimate gripe.…

By Larry Derfner May 4, 2015

Asylum seekers from Darfur take part in the 11th memorial day for the genocide in Darfur, in Levinsky park, South Tel Aviv, April 30, 2014.

Photos of the week: Remembering a genocide

This week: remembering Darfur, asylum seekers in Belgium, refusing military service, tear gas in Nil’in, Bedouins face demolitions in the Negev, Palestinian prisoners go on hunger strike, housing struggles in Israel, and Ethiopian Jews protest discrimination.

By Activestills May 2, 2014

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Soldiers from the IDF's Egoz Reconnaissance Unit, which specializes in guerrilla warfare in southern Lebanon. (Illustrative photo: IDF Spokesperson/Flickr)

WATCH: Is the IDF the ‘great equalizer’ of Israeli society?

One of the foundational myths of the State of Israel is that regardless of one’s ethnic or socio-economic background, recruitment into the army was the way to create social mobility that would place everyone on an equal playing field. Today, minority groups such as Ethiopian, Bedouin and Druze continue trying to integrate into society through…

By Social TV January 13, 2014

Immigration police arresting an Eritrean refugee, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2/3/2008 (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

In Israel’s trade catalog, arms and asylum seekers are equal commodities

With arbitrary arrest and detention, forcible transfer, withholding of basic human rights, the imposition of birth control measures and now an arms-for-asylum-seekers deal which amounts to little more than human trafficking, Israel has become a theater of horrors for Africans. A report in yesterday’s Yedioth Aharonoth (originally in Hebrew, and translated into English for their website) revealed…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland July 10, 2013

WATCH: 18 arrested in protest of Ethiopian Jews against racism

The protest against the racism and discrimination against Ethiopian Jews continues. Yesterday a few dozen people, most of them Ethiopians, gathered for a small protest near the Tel Aviv Museum. No less than 18 were arrested; among them was Ulet Hararo, who marched last month from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to protest racism and discrimination…

By Noam Sheizaf January 31, 2012

An Ethiopian teen’s principled refusal to join the IDF

“Y.E.S. – Young Ethiopian Students” have published a letter from one of their readers, an 18-year-old about to join the IDF. The story of the Ethiopian community in Israel is one of the most profoundly shameful chapters in the history of the state, which deserves a separate post; but I will only say the Ethiopian…

By Dimi Reider May 14, 2011

Refugee “seder” tells modern day Passover stories

By Nicole Hyman It was in Levinsky Park in South Tel Aviv eating matzah and charoset (traditional Passover food) with a group of non-Jewish men from Eritrea that I finally understood the meaning of Pesach (Passover). But it had nothing to do with the unleavened bread we were eating, the glasses of wine or even the…

By +972 Magazine April 11, 2011

Yedioth Aharonoth 10 October: Netanyahu strives to satisfy the right wing of his coalition

Between the Lines (Oct 10): Loyalty law expected to pass

The Headlines: Jews and non-Jews > The government is likely to approve today a proposed bill, which will require all new non-Jewish citizens to declare their loyalty to Israel as a “Jewish and democratic” state. Ha’aretz [Heb] and Yedioth focus their criticism today on Ehud Barak, leader of the Labor party, who supports the law…

By Roi Maor October 10, 2010

Yedioth Aharonoth front page, 8 October.

Between the Lines (8 Oct): On the loyalty oath and racism

The Headlines: The Dollar declines, Israeli politics sink even lower > The dollar has sharply declined throughout the world. In Israel, the national bank has been trying to stop this development (which would hurt exports and economic growth) by buying huge amounts of foreign currency. Predictably, it is failing to exclude Israel from the global…

By Roi Maor October 8, 2010