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Friday, January 20, 2012

International Is Israel a Blackman Land?

Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 7:49 AM

Max Schindler reports:

Thousands of Ethiopian Israelis and their supporters marched through central Jerusalem on Wednesday to call attention to a recent groundswell of racism and discrimination.

olding picket signs and shouting “a new generation demands change,” the demonstrators joined a wave of protests triggered by a Channel 2 report last week that a group of homeowners in Kiryat Malachi—a Southern town with a large Ethiopian population— signed a pledge to neither rent nor sell to Israelis of Ethiopian origin.

With differing and sometimes competing protest signs, the crowd spanned the ideological spectrum. Some demonstrators hoisted Israeli flags while others clutched photos of Nelson Mandela and sharply criticized Israel’s treatment of their community.

One Israeli-Ethiopian man held a sign asking “Is there a future for me in this state?” Others carried posters appropriating phrases and symbols from the American civil rights movement and black American figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.

120,000 black Ethiopian Jews currently live in Israel. They were transported there during the 80s and 90s. The confusion of messages in this protest only reflects the complicated nature of their citizenship.

For those who want to know, the title of this post was inspired by this classic of dub poetry.

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they would have been better off coming here instead.

Posted by Max Solomon on January 20, 2012 at 9:13 AM

@1 - Ethiopia is home to historically one of the largest populations of Jews in the world. How silly of them to think they could move to the 'Jewish' state and not be persecuted, huh?

What a fucking horrible country Israel is - a country where, if you're an American Evangelical who converts to Judaism solely to help bring about the rapture, the state rewards you with stolen land and brings military assistance at the first sign of trouble. A country where, if you're brown, even if you and your ancestors dating back thousands of years were Jewish, you will still be subject to apartheid. Israel makes me sick, and I say that as a lifelong Jew.

Posted by Despicable Me on January 20, 2012 at 9:22 AM

Didn't Moses have a black wife? And didn't his sister get temporarily cursed with skin "as white as snow" for talking smack about it?

Posted by I have always been... east coaster on January 20, 2012 at 11:08 AM

@1 - The same is true of all Jews, in my opinion.

Posted by I have always been... east coaster on January 20, 2012 at 11:09 AM

@4, they don't always get a choice. Israel takes them in, other countries don't. One of the key stories of Israel is how every other country in the Middle East has systematically eliminated their Jewish population, now that there's somewhere else for them to go. Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia -- the Jewish diaspora used to have thriving communities in all these countries. They're gone now.

Posted by Fnarf

on January 20, 2012 at 12:55 PM

Sometimes I think the state of Israel is an experiment in demonstrating that there's nothing special about the Jewish people. We're having no trouble proving we're just as ignorant as everyone else.

As if it's not enough that Israel is committing national suicide with the occupation and the settlements under Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel's own George W. Bush), you see so much news lately about the ultra-Orthodox (Israel's own welfare queens) and their war on women; about the corruption and economic stratification--well, this latest bit of news doesn't surprise me.

Posted by cressona on January 20, 2012 at 2:43 PM

@6 Thanks for posting that. Fucking despicable stuff.

Posted by OuterCow on January 20, 2012 at 3:11 PM

Growing up on the North Shore of Chicago, I learned a few things about Jewish racism. Skokie Jewish housewives absolutely adore the one black woman who works as their cleaning lady.

Posted by eclexia on January 20, 2012 at 4:48 PM