The Jerusalem Post
Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog announced on Wednesday that plans were already under way to expand broadcasting hours for the Israel Broadcasting Authority’s [IBA] Amharic- language radio show, despite recent cutbacks to the national broadcasting body.
Speaking at the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women, which was discussing domestic violence in the Ethiopian community, Herzog said that as minister responsible for the financially-strapped IBA he had already met with Israel Radio chief Yoni Ben-Menachem to discuss a joint venture that would expand the hours of the Amharic- language broadcast.
Funding for such a project would most likely come from the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, said a spokeswoman for Herzog.
Herzog said he believed that the radio station was an essential tool to help ease some of the Ethiopian community’s social problems and assist them in the absorption process.
According to Tsega Melaku, director of the Amharic and Tigrigna service, 90 per cent of the Ethiopian immigrant community listens to the two hours of radio that are broadcast daily at lunchtime and in the evenings.
“Most of the community does not have access to newspapers or television,” she said, highlighting the large number of immigrants that are illiterate and rely on her service for vital information.
“We do not only broadcast news but also act as a guide for new immigrants regarding all areas of their new life,” said Melaku.
16 thoughts on “Israeli Public Radio to Boost Amharic Broadcasts”
Selam,
I am writing from Israel.As an Ethiopian immigrant to this country,I would like to point out about discrimination and racism.
Rampant racism against Ethiopian Jew. All forms of racism is widespread against Ethiopians in this country. White teachers are discriminating our children at schools, police against our young people and fathers and mothers are discriminated in their work place. The level of racism in Israel is limitless and completely UGLY.
Discrimination and racism exists everywhere. The difference is the degree of its severity. The white world as well as the Arab world is by in large to blame for it. The Darker the person’s skin color the severe the ugliness of racism. It happiness in India, Bangladesh, all South American countries, Western and Eastern Europe as well as in the United States.
The remedy is to fight it off with everything you have. As far as Israeli Public radiao boosting Amharic Broadcast to Ethiopia it depends on its quality of transmission.
I don’t think Israel is a racist country when it comes to us-Ethiopians.And it is the only country who gives citizenship on arrival for Ethiopians and it has the highest percentage of Ethiopians out side of Ethiopia.The state expenditure per immigrant for Ethiopians is the highest,say,compared to the Russian’s.Mostly those who complain about racism are people who find it hard to cope with the challenges of a comptetive society.Those who reside in the west are familiar to how a modern market economy works.Anyone who can deliver a marketable commodity including labour with a competetive price will make it.It’s true there are many difficulties when one immigrates from place to place,say,from Gondar to Addis.If one decided to migrate it’s expected from him to face the challenges. In Israel Ethiopian should focus on education.That is the single most important tool to overcome the difficulties and assimilate in the society.
jonathan you know nothing about what the white jew does to ethiopian jew.
they hate ethiopian jew so much
go to israel and you will see when they call you barya
አመተ ምህረቱንና ቀኑን በትክክል አላስታዉሰዉም::በኢትዮጵያ ቴሌቭዥን ወይም በሌላ ዜና ኢትዮጵያዉያን አይሁዶች የለገሱት ደም ተለይቶ በመደፋቱ ተቃዉሞ ማድረጋቸዉን ሰምቻለሁ አስታዉሳለሁም:: ከዚህ የበለጠ ዘረኝነት ምን አለ? ስለዚህ ነጭ አይሁዶች ዘረኛ አይደሉም ቢባል አያስተዛዝብም አቶ ዮናታን?
I say lets stop crying about racism and let all black ppl of this world unite, that is our weakness and that is the same issue we have back in ethiopia. lets unite and work with each other to better our self and our country.
peace
The “Ethiopian”,
I live in Jerusalem and no one insulted me just out of the blue.If somebody called you “barya” as you have said,he must be a person who is jealous of your achievements.I bet the person who calls you these names is an oriental jew or an arab.These are under privileged sect of the society and are trying to take it out on you their frustration.The more successful they see you,they realize through you how they failed.And that can drive them crazy and this could happen everywhere-in Ethiopia too.So cheer up,brother!
ወንድሞችና እህቶች
በቅድሚያ ባንድ ጉዳይ ላይ ግልጥ እንሁን:: ለመሆኑ ስንቶቻችን ነን ከእንዲህ ያለው እስተሳሰብ የነጻነው? እርስ በርሳቸን የምንባባለውን እስቲ እናስበው:: እዚህ እሚሪካን እገር መጥተን እንኩዋን ስለ ጥቁር ወንድሞቻችን ያለን እይታ ምንድነው? ስለዚህ ግለሰቦቸ የትም ይሁን የትም የዝረኝነት እመለካከት ሊኖራቸው ይችላል:: ዋናው ነገር በህግና በፖሊሲ ደረጃ የሚራመድ እለመሆኑ ነው:: ደግሞም እንድ ነገር መርሳት የለብንም:: የናዚ ግፍ ሰለባ የሆኑ በርካታ እስራኢላውያን እኮ ገና በህይወት እሉ:: እና ዘረኝነት ማለት ምን ማለት እንደሆነ በሚገባ ያውቃሉ:: ወጣቱ ትውልድም ይህን እንዲያስታውሰው ይፈልጋሉ:: በሊላ በኩል ደግሞ ምን ያህል የኢትዮጵያ እስራኢላውያን ለከፍተኛ ትምህርት እንደበቁ: በወታደራዊ መስክም እንደገፉ ማወቅ እለብን:: በቅርቡ እዚያው የተማረ ቢተ እስራኢላዊ የሰራውን ታላቅ ፊልም ተመልክቺ የተረዳሁት ነገር ቢኖር ይህንኑ ነው:: በየመስኩ ለማደግ የሚያደርጉትን ትግልና ጥረት እንዲሁም የሚያሳዩትን እበረታች ውጢት:: የዛሪ እስር እመት የነበረው ሁኒታ ተለውጦዋል:: ዛሪ ያለው ደግሞ ወደፊት እይኖርም:: ስለዚህ ተስፋ ሳይቆርጡ በመማርና በመጣር የፈለጉበት ደረጃ መድረስ ይቻላል::
Hi all,
I am really amazed by jonathan comment “I don’t think Israel is a racist country when it comes to us-Ethiopians”
What do you mean by that, Sir?
Does it mean rasism is not your concern in Israel because you are an Ethiopian?
What about others non Ethiopians?
Don’t lose your Ethiopian identity and remain “human being” even though you have another citizenship. Read books about Ethiopia in positive manner. There are plenty of it every where. And teach your kids your ethiopian language. Knowing yourself is the ultimat self empowerment. No body would dare take it away from you. That is the only remedy. Once you lost your identity, you lost every thing.
There is a good book which narrates about black identity crisis, written by Franz Fanon “Black skin white masks” For the time being , I have to forget about the naive jonathan’s asseration of “challenges to compete with a competitive society” He doesn’t have any clue about institutionalized rasism”, I guess.
This is a good idea, increasing Amharic radio program is an excellent idea for the Ethiopian community to feel at home. As the report states majority is illiterate and depends on the hearing information a lot more than reading. I think this is a good idea.
As the saying,you cannot improve it if you can not measure it.If you blindly ignore that there is no racism in a country where covert racism is institutionalised,we cannot go no where in our effort to integrate our society in this country.I know there there are a lot of Ethiopian elite in Israel who only wanted to appease their masters.This is really rediculous!!I can give you a mountain of facts how Ethiopian are discriminated in this country!!Ther are a number of public schools who officially declare not to accept ethiopian childeres,many organisations are not happy to admit ethiopian to their work force.THIS IS A SOLIDE FACT!!!THIS IS A CRONIC PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY,WE CAN’T DENY IT.What I am saying is we have a cronic problem and let us find a solution for it.
KE DETU WEDE MATU. we, ethiopians know that there is a strong discrimination in Israel againt black ethiopians[ felashes] i think yonathan must be either deaf or he has somemintal problems.IN general Israel as a nation has a deep hatred for ethiopia and ethiopians even if we have in so many things in common [like religion, culture, blood relation], Let me give my justificationS . 78 Ethiopians, 48 of them women have been sitting in the darkest prison on earth with sucide bombers at leas for the last five years, still we do not have any information where about those poor and innocent ethiopia.Their crime was to run from ethiopia’s repressive and dictator regime and entered in Israel illegally to save their life and asked asylum in Irsael. The Israel governmnet brought all 78 ethiopians tocourt and decide to deport them where their unbuyable life can be in danger. when they refused to accept their deportation , Israel has put in prison, the prison situation according to the prisoners interview to VOA, they get their food one time per day, one time duche per month, and 30 minutes sun light . most of them got eye problems because of lack of sun light.Their IN human imprisomnet invited more international medias, there was ademonstration in Dc infront of Israel’s embassy. Ethiopia orthodox church in cannada asked cannada’s Government to give them a resettlemnt programm, but Isarel refused to give them freedom to goto embassy and start the process, the reason which was gieven by israel’s foreign minister was that “they are illegalin country , they can not get any resettlement programm fromour country, if they want to to cannada theymust goback to ethiopia and take their visa from ethiopia.” Most ethiopians do think Isarel as our second country, and israel’s ppl are our close family,but they have so ddep hatred to ethiopia and ethiopians. this is not enough again, ISAREL is trying to give ethiopia’s dure selutan [ ethiopian’s church to egeypt]. this is the most un acceptable mistake which Israel is going to do. ethiopians in israel must give more attention about our gedams. Israel has taken ethiopians from ethiopia as it’s citizens, so ethiopian’s felashes must get an approperate treatement, .they ad a majority , they have a right to have TV,radio, news papers,and even language school for their children. soon or later ethiopia will be free from dictators and t our country will be one of the best country where everybody wishes tolive . SO even if our brothers and sisters letf ethiopia behind and resettled in Israel now, the time will come they will resettle again in ethiopia that is why they need to have language school. GOD BLESS ETHIOPIA AND ETHIOPIANS EVERY WHERE, AMEN
I may not as articulate as some of you,however, the only way to overcome all these imagined or actual grievances is EDUCATION HARD WORK.Theories of the last century not necessarily fits the 21st century.Franz Fanon lived in a different country,continent and century.One can bring Pushkin(of an Ethiopian origin) as an example,the greatest of the Russian poets.I do agree there is racism against lazy people who lives on welfare handout.
MR yonathan, Do you think only ethiopians areliving on social welfare? I am an ethiopian,i do not have any jew’s blood, but one thing is clear, ethiopia’s felashes in Israel are a majority ,Israel had paid 35mn dollars to take them from Ethiopia , that is not enough the Israel press medias and film actors have done so many bad films about ethiopia’s felashes, who they are being treated in ethiopia by ethiopians as if other ethiopians are living better life than them. this is simply to show ethiopia’s bad image for the world, but their films are based on false facts, Ethiopia has been treating ethiopia’s felashes over 3000 years like it’s own citizens or children.IF Israel’s government discriminates it’s citizens, ALL THE TRASH films against their treatement in ethiopia is shameless. because the government which claimed and considered them as it’s citizens , took them from far away tomiddle east , but refused to a chance to have tv and radio programms, news papers on their own native languages and amharic language schools , has no legal right to accuse of war victumed ethiopia for their ill treatement, if that really happened .
I am really SORRY for those of you who blindely claim that there is NO racism against ethiopian in israel.What is those blood scandals 5 months back,what is the segregation of ethiopian student in every school,(by the way Israeli newspaper and tv station to day have reported the racist act of israeli socient against ethiopian children at school,shame to you ISRAELISE!!!why are most ethiopian youngesters are mudered in the army.ARE THESE NOT RACISM,SIR?
we Ethiopian dose not have experiance about racisem if some one try to be a raciste i just lough cos we dont know