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Israeli school segregated Ethiopian students

Jerusalem Post

THE JERUSALEM POST

The placement of four Ethiopian girls in a separate class from their peers at a Petah Tikva grade school has sparked accusations of segregation on Tuesday morning following a report in Yediot Aharonot.

According to ‘Hamerhav’ principal, Rabbi Yeshiyahu Granvich, complete integration of the girls was impossible. The reason being, said municipal workers, was that the students were not observant enough, nor did their families belong to the national-religious movement that the school was founded upon.

Among the differences in the daily school life of the girls, a single teacher was responsible to teach them all of their subjects. Worse yet, the four were allotted separate recess hours and were driven to and from school separately. Such action has been labeled by observers as “apartheid.”

“I don’t understand why they are doing this to us… just because we are black,” one parent, who had noticed a drop in his daughter’s mood and a lack of new friends told Daniel Oria, an active member of the Ethiopian community. Oria told the newspaper that he tried to speak with the school’s principal but was asked to leave.

After Oria’s failed attempt, he filed a request with a municipal education official asking to bring an end to the alleged discrimination. In reply, the official claimed that the institution was an “elitist school which believes that students must first learn how to behave and only then can they be integrated.”

A similar request made to Petah Tikva Deputy Mayor Flatiel Eizenthal, a member of NU/NRP, gave a similar response, saying that he could not understand why the parents were so worried because the school knew better how to treat the children and that it was not worrisome that they were being separated.

Education Minister Yuli Tamir however, was “astonished to hear about the phenomenon,” claiming that the incident “has not been reported to the Education Ministry”.

“This is racism,” said Tamir, promising that if allegations proved accurate, the ministry would “act severely.”

18 thoughts on “Israeli school segregated Ethiopian students

  1. Well there is always problem for all Ethiopians who left ther home land & also big price to pay, when you talk about ethiopia badly after you went to promise land or what ever you call it the out come is this.Any way Ethiopia will be there for you no matter what MAMA land always will & well come all here kids open arm if you don’t not want to be Israeli you will be proud Ethiopians, stop crying and come home.
    ONE PEOPLE ,ONE NATION , ONE ETHIOPIA ALWAYS.

  2. GIVE UP, GOOD ADVICE . OUR ethiopia’s felashes have been accusing of US[NON felashes ] in ethiopia by saying we are discriminating them. The ISRAEL government had paid 35mn dollars for derg to get green light and resettle them to the promised land, and it did, now they are facing the real discrimination in Israel. Let me tell one history. I was sitting in a language school some wnere in europe with one a gril from Israel. when we introduced our selves to all the students and our language’s teacher, that Israel’s girl said for everybody” there are soamny refugees fromethiopia” I told her, they are are refugges, they are ISraelians like you. she responded angrily” there is no black Israelian[ jewes]”So our brothers and sisters are facing a tough life . I know russian’s jewishes, they are not easy.AS give up said, Even if you left beloved ethiopia behind tolook for your promised land, Ethiopia will never close her door to you. you always well come . The time will come , ethiopia will be one of the place where everybody wishes to live or get shelther, and you will have priority in ethiopia. we are working hard the days to be numbered for dictators.that is why our brothers and sisters need to have amharice language school as soon as possible.

  3. so even the jeweshe people segeragerte the othere people.
    the funy thing is,is that land belong to this people ? i mean to jeweshe? the so called jews people have to rembere the past life of them in german or eruope and learn how to respect bean black is. speacaly bean an ethiopian is not just bean ethiopia its bean an orginal human being, the most repected people in earth and in god, and so so on…. and we will show them haw we used to rule them in africa.i think the jeweshe people used to slave in africa . editore pls teall them we the firest people who used to have a white slave in earth even in africa is us.you know the used to our slave time past and the become a human being and trying to segergeate a king of king pure black people. my god to day and forvere rembere us to save the true balck people in earth and heaven.amen

  4. Apartheid and segregation may be dead and buried forever long time ago in South Africa and America respectively but alive and well in the newly established Zionist state of Israel.

    The Israeli’s white Jews, former slaves of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Romans, and the remnants of the Nazi’s gas chamber, have indeed forgotten their past history of suffering, alienation, segregation, persecution, and deportation. Instead of remembering their old and sad chronicles and doing good to those original Ethiopian black Jews who are living in Israel as aliens – only in name as Israeli citizens – whose ancestors had never been exiled to any country outside Ethiopia, never been enslaved by foreign powers, or had never seen the gas chamber in Germany because they were living in Ethiopia freely for almost three thousand years, they (the Israeli white Jews) are now discriminating the Ethiopian black Jewish children for the following main reasons: 1. The Ethiopian Jewish children are black, 2. The Ethiopian Jewish children are not qualified to go to an elitist school in Israel, 3. The Ethiopian Jewish children could not be integrated to the Israeli society without first they (the Ethiopian Jewish children) mastering how to behave well in class or in the Jewish community, and 4. The Ethiopian Jewish children are not good enough in observing or fulfilling the European white Jewish laws – the religious ritual, custom, the Sabbath, the kosher, and the skull cap (the kippah) which is not even mentioned in their Torah.

    Do these superficial Jewish laws are good causes to prohibit a born-free Ethiopian Jewish child from going to any school of his/her choice in all Israeli’s schools? Blackness is not a contagious disease that spreads allover from one person to another; rather blackness is an ingredient that gives beauty and vivid appearance, variety and completeness to the other colors. How lovely and beautiful will it be to see black children and white children, sitting side by side, learning the Torah and the Talmud by heart, singing, playing, and worshiping together in the same school, in the same playground, and in the same synagogue! Such good things, of course, may never happen in Israel, but it has happened in South Africa; it has happened in America, and it has happened in many other countries but in Israel.

    The justified disobedience by the Ethiopian Jewish children to the decadent and superficial ceremonial laws of the European white Jews should not be one of the causes that prevent any Ethiopian Jewish children from joining the elitist schools in Israel. By nature from their childhoods, the children of the Ethiopian Jews, the children of the Ethiopian Christians, and the children of the Ethiopian Muslims are humble, shy, and obedient to their parents, to their elders, to their teachers, to their community leaders, and even to strangers. They have learned from their parents and mastered the art of obedience and humbleness when they were just toddlers.

    So, who are these Jewish rabbis who discriminate these four Ethiopian Jewish girls from going to the elitist school, from having free time/recess with the other white children, and from riding the same school bus? St. Paul, who read the Jewish mind very well, asks: “For who makes you different from anyone else?” 1 Corinthians 4:7)

    Being taught by a single teacher all day long all subjects is not uncommon practice in Ethiopia or perhaps in Israel. What is uncommon, however, is to tell an innocent child that he/she could not attend this or that school, and could not ride this or that bus because he/she is black or is not an observant Jew. Do the Israeli white Jews really understand how these four beautiful Ethiopian Jewish girls feel about when they are barred from attending any school of their choices and their Ethiopian Jewish heritage is questioned? I urge the Israeli white Jews to read diligently one of their Torahs which says: “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9) Finally, how pleasant it will be if they listen to what St. Paul says: “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” (Romans 12:16) Almost by now everyone knows how hard it is for the Israeli white Jews to live in harmony with the Palestinians, and especially with the Ethiopian black Jews!

  5. Assta B. Gettu says,thank you so much for great comment.Not only it is wise,it is a lesson for everyone,paryicularly for those former nazi victims of white Jewish!!

    Today,racism in israel is the commenest phenomena.It is a daily event for Ethiopians out here.At school their children,at work their fathers and mothers almost everywhere ethiopian are humilated by racist israelise.

  6. Assta B. Gettu, Thank you for this well thought comment. I like to see your comment posted everywhere so that it can reach those racist Jews who are responsible for this kind of discrimination.

  7. It is better for them to be discriminated in Isreal than in Ethiopia. They were isolated and insulted(‘felasha,’ ‘buda,’ ‘qetqach,’etc) as they were in Ethiopia. The discrimination is not worse by far as it was in Ethiopia.

  8. woube,what a rediculous comment you have had in this forum.Is that an excuse for isrealise to discriminate ethiopian children,sir?

    Please donot be too submissive to such absurd racism in Israel.One needs to recognise the problem,in order to find the way out.

    Shame to ISRAEL

  9. Dear Bakare.I am not saying that it is an excuse for Isrealise to discriminate Ethiopians. I am just saying the truth. I hope you know that truth. On my analogy, I don’t feel that much if I am discriminated by any other non-Ethiopians. When I am discriminated in my country and by any Ethiopian fellow, I feel very bad. Anyway I hate any form of discrimination. I am just comparing the situation. Anybody knows that those Isreali Ethiopians have at least leading better life than the life in Ethiopia.

  10. Woube thanks brother.Even if there was some form of taboo against Ethiopian Jew in their home country back to Ethiopia,i am sure that there were no rampant racism as such.

    Here is a cruel discrimination and abuse by Israelise out of nothing but becasue we are only ethiopian.That is our crime,nothing else.we are a proud ethiopians,we are not liers,we are not deceivers,we know how to respect others and we seek also other to respect our value.

    Please stop the BIG SILENCE and fight this stupid racism in this country.If we persist to be quite,we will always be a victim of thier absurd conception!!!!!

  11. To Assta Begettu.I can’t believe you refer the Bible.What you wrote make sense but not spiritual.Besides the versus the words you used totaly contradict the Bible.I found it hard to understand you because you used harsh words and unloving.

  12. My dear Teru,

    I have no remorse what so ever for using harsh words, if you think I have used, against those Israeli white Jews who purposely dehumanize my Ethiopian black Jews every day by discriminating and disparaging them since they have been in Israel just because they are Ethiopians and at that blacks. The Israeli white Jews are indeed lucky that I have not raised an army with millions of battalions and marched against the land of Israel to liberate my oppressed Ethiopian black Jews and bring them home. The Israeli white Jews want, I think, to destroy the identities, cultures, customs, and religious ceremonies of my Ethiopian black Jews. In general, the Israelis must accept the Ethiopian black Jews like their own families; however, such kindness and generosities have not yet been extended to the new comers – the Ethiopian black Jews. In fact, the Ethiopian black Jews are considered enemies rather than family members of all the Israeli Jews. The Ethiopians who live in Israel are Jews, not Christians or Muslims, and they are citizens of Israel. As citizens, they must have access to all businesses, opportunities, and jobs. They must be given higher paying jobs, and they should not waste their times in looking for jobs. The government of Israel must find them jobs if the Israeli white Jews consider them as their own families, not their enemies. Yet with all their knowledge of scriptures, with all their worldly wisdoms, and with all their wealth, the Israeli white Jews, the sons and daughters of mendicant European Jews are evils in their treatment against the Ethiopian black Jews. They have conspired to destroy the identity and the Jewishness of the Ethiopian black Jews. How fresh and timely are the words of one of the Jewish Prophets, Micah who said: “… a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.” (7:6) These Ethiopian Jews went to Israel to be members of the Israeli Jews; instead, the Israeli Jews became their enemies. My advice to my Ethiopian black Jews in Israel is the same advice Micah the Prophet gave to the people of Judah long time ago: “Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend.” (7:5) Do not depend on Israeli white Jews. Depend on yourself; be proud of your color, your identity, your custom, your culture, and your original Ethiopian Jewishness. You are a beautiful creature of God! And at that the chosen people of God.

    Dear Teru, you mentioned that what I wrote makes sense but not spiritual. Referring to your statement you mean every thing that is spiritual does not make sense; therefore, any thing that does not make sense is spiritual according to your logical thinking. You have also failed to mention the words or verses I used, you think, contradict the Bible. Tell me which words I used contradict the Scriptures? In failing to do so, there is nothing I can do to help you understand how the words I used are related to the Holy Bible.

    Finally, I have no loving words for those Israeli white Jews who intentionally dubbed my Ethiopian black Jews “tikur” day in and day out; in the play ground, in the work area, in the street, in the army, in the public resort, in the market, in the school, at the restaurant, in the synagogue, at the wedding party, at the funeral home, and almost every where, any time, any place. Who can say loving words, even though the Scripture says “love your enemy” for such Israeli bigoted white Jews? It was these types of people that Jesus denounced when he said: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” (Matthew 23:15) We know some of the Israeli Jews went to Ethiopia to bring the Ethiopian black Jews to Israel and to convert them to the Judaism of the Israeli white Jews, and when they became their Jews they made their lives as worst as hell by ridiculing them and calling them names such as backward, untidy, undisciplined, and burned face Ethiopian black Jews who are ignorant of the Torah. In fact, the real remnants of the Jewish people and the true children of Abraham are the Ethiopian black Jews, and that is why the Israeli white Jews hate the Ethiopian black Jews as Esau hated Jacob. After all these problems the Ethiopian black Jews facing are passed, I predict that the Ethiopian black Jews will become a powerful black nation where all the Israeli white Jews will be their subservient. Then there will be no Jews, no Greeks, no slave, no master, no male, and no female. All will be equal in God’s eyes according to the Holy Bible.

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