Ethiopian Jews in Israel
Israelis of Ethiopian descent rank below the general hebrew speaking population on several critical socioeconomic metrics .
[34] Due to those challenges, the Israeli government created several programs better the Ethiopian Jews in Israel's socio-economic status and to narrow and close educational gaps.
The Ethiopian Beta Israel community's internal challenges have been complicated by: entering a relatively modern country (Israel) from non-modern, rural, remote regions of Ethiopia (compared with other immigrant groups entering from industrialized countries, and who typically possess significantly greater formal education); the disruption of long-standing hierarchies and customs within Beta Israel in which elders lead and guide their community; racial prejudice; and a degree of lingering doubt within a minority of groups regarding the "Jewishness" of certain Ethiopians (e. g., the Falash Mura).
It covered issues of housing, education, employment, and practical organization, together with policy guidelines regarding specific groups, including women, youths, and single-parent families.
Like earlier absorption policies, it adopted a procedural approach which assumed that the immigrants were broadly similar to the existing majority population of Israel.
[2] Unlike Russian immigrants, many of whom arrived with job skills, Most Ethiopians came from a subsistence economy and were ill-prepared to work in an industrialized society.
The majority of the Beta Israel immigrants continue to speak in Amharic (primarily) and Tigrinya at home with their family members and friends.
Strategically, Israel "has always aspired to protect itself by means of a non-Arab belt that has included at various times Iran, Turkey, and Ethiopia".
[49] Israeli authorities, aware of the situation of most African diaspora communities in other Western countries, hosted programs to avoid setting in patterns of discrimination.
[49] The Ethiopian Beta Israel community's internal challenges have been complicated by perceived racist attitudes in some sectors of Israeli society and the establishment.
Hundreds of Ethiopians participated in protests the streets of Jerusalem on April 20, 2015, to decry what they view as "rampant racism" and violence in Israel directed at their community.
"[56] Following protests and demonstrations in Tel Aviv that resulted in violence, Netanyahu planned to meet with representatives of the Ethiopian community, including Pakado.
Large protests broke out in July 2019 after Solomon Teka, a young Ethiopian man, was shot and killed by an off-duty policy officer, in Kiryat Haim, Haifa, in northern Israel.
[57][58] On January 24, 1996, Ma'ariv newspaper revealed a Magen David Adom policy that drew heavy criticism in Israel and worldwide.
[59][60][61] According to the policy, which was not brought to the attention of the Israeli Ministry of Health or donors, blood donations received from Ethiopian immigrants and their offspring were secretly disposed of.
[62] The public outcry led to the establishment of a commission of inquiry headed by former Israeli president Yitzhak Navon.
[59][63][64] On November 6, 2006, hundreds of Ethiopian protesters clashed with police while attempting to block the entrance to Jerusalem in the wake of the Israeli Health Ministry's decision to continue the MDA policy of disposing of donations from high-risk groups.
Hedva Eyal, the author of the report, stated: "We believe it is a method of reducing the number of births in a community that is black and mostly poor.
"[71] Haaretz criticized international coverage of the issue, stating that although some Ethiopian Jewish women's procreational rights had been violated through medical malpractice, these effects would only last for three months, and that any claims of a state-sponsored sterilization were falsehoods warped by circular reporting.
[73] A 2016 investigation into the claims of the 35 women found no evidence that forced birth control injections of Ethiopian Jews took place.
