From: jle@locus.com (John Elghani/10000000)
Subject: Re: MORE ABOUT COLOR DISCRIMINATION IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE (ISRAEL)
Organization: LC
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 20:42:11 GMT

In article <1992Sep14.171212.1052@colorado.edu> perlman@qso.Colorado.EDU (Eric S. Perlman) writes:
>In article <1992Sep13.190710.2409023@locus.com> jle@locus.com (John Elghani/10000000) writes:
>>I received the following article about the discrimination there.   To make
>>story short, I'll only show sections of the article.  Apparently
>>the government knows that the Ethiopian Jews are converts, but not
>>*FULLY* converted yet. Read on.  -JLE
>
>I suggest that John Elghani go back and learn how to read the English
>language.  The last sentence is nowhere in the excerpts from the article
>below, nor can *any* part of it be implied from the wording that Elghani
>presents.  Typical.

Don't the following 3 lines prove what I said, ERIC?  This is rather
typical of you. 


>>	Besides recognizing the authority of the kessim, the Ethiopians want
>>Israel to cease its requirement that the immigrants undergo a symbolic
>>conversion, which they call ``a great insult.''


>
>>	JERUSALEM (UPI) -- ...
>>	...
>>	But younger members of the tightly-knit community of 40,000 Jews
>>airlifted from Ethiopia over the last decade said the dispute over their
>>kessim was only the most humiliating part of the growing bitterness they
>>feel over their reception in Israel.
>>	From a shortage of permanent housing for the Ethiopian immigrants to
>>the Israeli rabbinate's refusal to accept many of them as Jews, the
>>community's early complaints have given way to major protest
>>demonstrations that are only now beginning to capture the government's
>>attention.
>>	``The most pressing problem for the Ethiopian community in Israel,
>>more so than those problems of housing and unemployment, is the deep
>>insult to us as Jews,'' Jobza Etzinpa, head of the Movement of Ethiopian
>>Jews in Israel, said in a letter to the Chief Rabbinate.
>>	``Instead of actively integrating and connecting our community to the
>>nation of Israel, the discriminating policies of different governmental
>>ministries have contributed to the separation and tearing of this
>>community from the societal fabric of Israel.''
>>	It was a weeklong sit-in by some 50 kessim that finally brought the
>>invitation from Rabin to meet with them. On Thursday, hundreds of
>>Ethiopians joined their religious leaders and blocked the road outside
>>the prime minister's office. The demonstration turned violent when rocks
>>were thrown and police arrested 28 of the protesters. Nine people were
>>hurt in the pushing and shoving that ensued.
>
>And bravo to Rabin for having met with them.  The problem here, pure and
>simple, is not with the government, but rather with the religious
>establishment.  The Ethiopian Jews were separated from the rest of world
>Jewry from a time *before* such works as the Talmud, and many of the
>oral interpretations that govern modern rabbinic decisions were
>delivered.  They were also subject to as much discrimination and tragedy
>in Ethiopia as Jews were throughout the world before WWII, made worse by
>their utter isolation - when they were re-discovered, they still
>believed they were the only Jews left in the world, and many of their
>Kessim were reluctant to accept the representatives of Israel, even
>rabbis from Israel, as truly Jewish.
>
>The religious establishment in Israel is overwhelmingly Orthodox, and
>therefore wants the Ethiopian Kessim to learn all the modern writings
>before being recognized.  This is just plain wrong.  But the problem is
>not governmental, it is the religious establishment.
>
>>...
>>
>>	Besides recognizing the authority of the kessim, the Ethiopians want
>>Israel to cease its requirement that the immigrants undergo a symbolic
>>conversion, which they call ``a great insult.''
>>...
>>
>>	They are calling on the state to list them all as ``Jews'' on their
>>national identity cards. Currently, the line for religion on the cards
>>is marked ``Ethiopian'' or ``unknown'' for those who have not performed
>>the abbreviated conversion ceremony, which involves ritual immersion in
>>water.
>>
>>jle
>
>And in my opinion, these requirements should be ceased; the Ethiopian
>Jews are clearly in the right.
>
>-- 
>"How sad to see/A model of decorum and tranquillity/become like any other sport
>A battleground for rival ideologies to slug it out with glee." -Tim Rice,"Chess"
>     Eric S. Perlman 				 <perlman@qso.colorado.edu> 
>  Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado, Boulder


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