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For Israeli-Ethiopians, a somber Jerusalem Day

“In our parents’ house, we ‘ate’ Jerusalem, ‘drank’ Jerusalem, slept and woke up with Jerusalem, and when a daughter was born in the family, we called her ‘Jerusalem.’”

By Pesach Benson, TPS

For most Israelis, Jerusalem Day is about celebrating the city’s reunification during the Six-Day War of 1967.

But for the Israeli-Ethiopian community, the day is also tinged with a little sadness. Jerusalem Day is also the day Israel’s 160,000 Ethiopians commemorate their 4,000 brothers and sisters who died trying to reach Israel.

Most died of malnutrition and disease between 1979 and 1990 while traveling by foot from Ethiopia to transit camps in neighboring Sudan.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government leaders joined the Ethiopians for a ceremony paying tribute to the 4,000 on Thursday.

Addressing the ceremony, Netanyahu said, “One of the expatriates from Ethiopia says, I quote: ‘In our parents’ house, we ‘ate’ Jerusalem, ‘drank’ Jerusalem, slept and woke up with Jerusalem, and when a daughter was born in the family, we called her ‘Jerusalem’, despite the bullying of the foreign environment.

“A large part of life there, in the heart of Africa, revolves around Jerusalem – in thoughts, imaginations, prayers. So it was from generation to generation.”

The prime minister praised changes in the educational curriculum expanding on the story of the Ethiopian exodus and promised to boost housing, employment, education and health care for the community.

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Netanyahu was referring to a protest outside his office on Sunday by Ethiopians demanding more funding for their community.

President Isaac Herzog also addressed the gathering.

Some 90,000 Ethiopian Jews were brought to Israel in a series of airlifts dating back to 1980. However, those airlifts were bogged down by Israeli budget and bureaucratic issues, disagreements on whether certain Ethiopian Jewish communities could be recognized as Jews, civil wars and instability in both Ethiopia and Sudan, and more recently, by coronavirus travel restrictions.