Ethiopian Jews forgotten?
Photo: Reuters
Sharon promised? So what?
How can government that presents itself as 'Sharon's legacy" ignore promise comatose PM made?
This is a story of injustice. It is a story about promises made by the Israeli government and summarily broken. Thousands of Falashmura, Ethiopian Jews, have been abandoned and left as refugees in Ethiopia. Our government ministers simply ignore their responsibility. It is a story of faulty ethics by a government that ignores the commitments made by the previous government.
The Falashmura consider themselves "forced Jews." This happened to them at the end of the 19th century when, when they asked to convert to Christianity in order to assimilate into Ethiopian society. The Israeli establishment and its rabbis, in all their compassion, decided to bring these people to Israel, and to put them through the formalities of conversion to satisfy the strictest interpretations of Jewish law.
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But the project has been stopped in its tracks for 15 years, since Yitzhak Shamir was prime minister. As of this writing, 4,500 people have been brought to Israel, out of a potential 17,000 eligible.
Sharon's project
Ariel Sharon, who despised the slow pace of the project, decided on January 31, 2005 to bring all 13,000 people living in sub-human conditions in the Gondar transit camp in Addis Ababa to Israel. He set aside some 3 billion shekels (USD 667 million), as well as a target date to finish the operation – the end of 2007.
Last Tuesday four government ministers – Ronnie Bar-On, Ze'ev Boim, Eli Yishai and Ophir Pines-Paz – met in the Prime Minister's Office to discuss the issue. Arguments were had, voices were raised, discussions were had.
Reality check
Pines-Paz and Yishai (who may have no loyalty to Sharon, but who are ethical people) argued for the immediate transfer of our brothers to Israel. Boim and Bar-On, who represent the Kadima Party that adorns itself with the legacy of the comatose prime minister, rejected the demand "in light of the reality."
The spirit of Bar-on's and Boim's remarks is: So, we promised? The budget was cut, the country cannot absorb 600 Falashmura per month. The punch line, like the well-known joke about the city of Chelem, is that the ministers decided not to decide. "We'll wait for the 2007 budget to decide," said committee chairman Bar-On.
And in the meanwhile? Our dark-skinned brothers are cooking under the Ethiopian sun, in 12-person beds in refugee camps, out of sight and out of mind. The government apparently can't prevent the embarrassing Supreme Court case on the issue set for this week.
Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On: Where is that "legacy of Sharon" you Kadima-types always talk about? Where is the responsibility to your brothers? "I live in reality," says Bar-On. "Even if three-and-a-quarter billion shekels fell out of the sky into my lap tomorrow, Israel is not prepared to absorb 600 Falashmura a month. I'm sorry to say it, but that is the truth. If I have to, I'll say the same thing in court."
Livni's roots
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a politician through and through, knows well how to maintain good relations with the media. Therefore, it is not clear just why she so afraid of a direct meeting with journalists, why she refuses each Sunday morning to respond to questions on her way to the government meeting.
Why is she afraid of the cameras waiting at the end of the meeting? Livni is not arrogant. She's only looking for a little peace of mind. She is worried about saying something wrong. After all, it's already happened to her.
Likudnik after all
Once upon a time, on a flight home after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, the foreign minister walked out of business class for a walk amongst the commoners. The journalists swarmed around her, the atmosphere was pleasant, and Livni was overtaken by fatigue. "We in the Likud…" said the senior Kadima Party official.
The journos laughed, and she added to the faux pas: "What can you do," she said. "We're all Likudniks, after all."
The lesson was learned. Livni's meetings with journalists are now monitored. Her speeches, especially in English, are exact and precise.
But this precision comes with a price: Livni's statements now come out as if they were a monotone on some neglected foreign ministry answering machine: "We will fulfill the requirements of the Quartet…" "We will work to block legitimacy from the terrorist Hamas government…", "We will build international support for Israel…"
So it is unsurprising that Livni's press appearances now appear deep inside the newspaper, and articles about "Israel's great political promise" are buried.
One senior journalist described the boredom at the foreign ministry: "I find myself longing for the 'good old days' of Silvan (Shalom). I would even agree to go on yet another 'heritage trip' to Tunis."
