A Canadian B’nai B’rith delegation which just returned from a fact finding mission to Ethiopia’s Gandar province, including visits to three Falasha villages, has concluded that the Jews in Ethiopia “do not live worse” than other sectors of the general population.
The delegation, which included Canadian B’nai B’rith president Don Jubas and executive vice president Frank Dimant, also issued in an interview here a harsh rebuttal of the “biased and tainted” reporting of other Falasha activist groups in North America, notably the Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jewry (CAEJ) and the American Association for Ethiopian Jewry (AAEJ).
They dismissed as a “diatribe against Israel” a controversial film on the Falashas recently screened to Knesset members and journalists here. The film, “The Falashas, ” was made some 18 months ago by a former Israeli now living in Canada, Simcha Jacobovici. It accuses the Israeli government of inaction and ineffectiveness in rescuing the Falashas and portrays their plight in Ethiopia and in refugee camps in neighboring Sudan as desperate.
The film and the controversy surrounding it were widely reported in the Canadia media. Jacobovici claimed earlier this month that the Israeli government was deliberately surpressing his film and preventing its general release or showing on Israel television.
WELCOMED BY ETHIOPIAN AUTHORITIES
The Canadian B’nai B’rith delegation went to Ethiopia with the active encouragement of the Israeli government and Jubas said they did not hide this fact from the Ethiopian authorities. “We were warmly welcomed by the Ethiopian authorities who knew we had come from Israel and were going back through Israel, and that we had come to see the situation of the Falashas, ” Jubas said.
In the three villages the delegation visited — Wallecka, Ambober and the more remotely located Abu Antonis — the delegation found “no specifically anti-Jewish legislation or discrimination,” Jubas said. “That is important in view of the wrong information that is being fed to the media.”
“One has to understand the special situation,” he added. “There are civil wars going on and that means military draft, not just for the Jews but for everybody. The Marxist government, moreover, functions on the premise that no one wants to leave. And indeed no one is allowed to leave ….”
Jubas and other members of the delegation said it was crucially important that other Jewish groups visit Falasha villages. They described the excitement and enthusiasm their visit had generated among the Falasha villagers — and their own emotions at feeling a bond of nationhood over a cultural gap of centuries.
While saying “Israel is doing what can be done,” Jubas acknowledged that it is “very difficult logistically to get” Falashas out of Ethiopia. “Organizations that claim a lot of credit, like the CAEJ and AAEJ, and raise a lot of money for flashy brochures, are registering only miniscule returns for their dollars,” Jubas said.
“There is no question that they get some (Falashas) out; but even according to them, their figures are tiny. It would be better if they spent the money they raise on scholarships and other requirements for Ethiopian Jews living in Israel,” Jubas added.
The interview with Jubas and other delegation members took place in the Diaspora Department of the Foreign Ministry, headed by Moshe Gilboa. The delegation also reported directly to Leon Dulzin, chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives.
ISRAEL AND ETHIOPIA
The report by the Canadian B’nai B’rith delegation, and especially its enthusiastic espousal by Israeli officials, appears to be part of an ongoing effort by Israel to portray the Ethiopian regime and its treatment of the Falashas in a much more favorable light than previously.
The turnabout began in January, 1983, when four persons indentified as Israeli social workers held a news conference in Jerusalem to report that they had made a trip to Ethiopia sponsored by the World Jewish Congress and had found that the Falashas condition had much improved and persecution of them had ceased.
At about the same time, reports appeared in the international press to the effect that Ethiopia was becoming dissatisfied with its Cuban military and civilian advisers and might turn again to Israel for assistance in the ongoing civil war and possibly in other, non-military areas.
Ethiopia, then still under Emperor Haile Selassie, broke its diplomatic ties with Israel in 1974. Unofficial links continued until 1979 when an apparently injudicious public reference to them by then Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan led to a further drastic estrangement.
Now, however, according to the Canadian delegation, they encountered Israeli businessmen in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. There are also a number of Ethiopian students taking courses in Israel. At the same time, Dulzin recently disclosed that the number of immigrants from Ethiopia to reach Israel during 1983 was in the thousands. It is understood that 2,200 Fahshas reached Israel in 1983.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
