This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TEL AVIV 001375 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/PPD M.QUINN, D.BENZE 
STATE INFO NEA/IPA, ECA, ITP 
JERUSALEM PASS ICD C.DANIELS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO SCUL KIRF ET IS ISRAELI SOCIETY
SUBJECT: ETHIOPIAN JEWRY IN ISRAEL 
 
¶1. Summary:  Ethiopian Jews in Israel number 
approximately 90,000.  Fifty percent of them are 
under the age of 25.  Most can trace their families' 
arrival in Israel to rescue missions such as Operation 
Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991). The vast 
majority live in impoverished communities where even 
menial work is scarce, and the lack of educational 
opportunities relegates most to low wage jobs. They 
face huge obstacles in the areas of access to 
employment, education, and housing. These difficulties 
are, at least in part, the result of challenges that 
they confront in moving from an essentially agrarian 
society in Ethiopia to the modern, technologically 
advanced Israeli economy.  Sixty-five percent of 
Israelis of Ethiopian origin are not working. 
More than 80 percent are functionally illiterate in 
their native Amharic.  Last year, only about 1,250 
Ethiopian students entered university at the completion 
of high school and military service, according to 
Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).  While 
there is a small middle class, it is negligible when 
compared with the overall Israeli population.  In 
addition, Ethiopian Israelis are held back by the 
widespread perception that they are not `real' Jews. 
Stereotyping and discrimination also trouble them and 
hinder their integration into Israeli society.  The GOI 
has taken some steps to address these issues.  It 
offers scholarships to Ethiopian students, promotes 
vocational training, provides favorable mortgages to 
Ethiopian homebuyers, and supports NGOs that foster 
ethnic and religious tolerance.  However, critics argue 
that the GOI must do more or Ethiopian immigrants could 
be locked into a cycle of despair and poverty that 
will lead to the creation of a permanent black 
underclass.  End Summary 
 
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Educating Ethiopian-Israeli Children 
------------------------------------ 
¶2. Ethiopian immigrants to Israel struggle to bridge a 
huge knowledge gap that directly impacts their 
integration into Israeli society.  They have one of the 
highest dropout rates and lowest achievement records of 
any community in Israel.  Only 32 percent of Ethiopian 
students were eligible to sit for college entrance 
exams, compared with 50 percent of students in the 
general population, according to the JDC Brookdale 
Institute, a leading center for applied research on 
human services.  A recent survey by the Institute found 
that more than 50 percent of Ethiopian-Israeli parents 
are not equipped to assist their children with 
schoolwork, and 65 percent of teachers have low 
expectations of these students, creating an unfortunate 
cycle of low expectations and poor performance. 
Ethiopian-Israelis are concentrated in a small number 
of communities, often learning at substandard schools. 
Barbara Swirski, director of the Adva Center, a non- 
partisan Israeli policy analysis center, explained that 
less than one-third of Ethiopian students in elementary 
and middle school receive grades at or above the 
national average, and thirty-five percent of Ethiopian- 
Israeli students in grades 1-9 cannot read or write at 
grade level.    UNESCO estimates that 90 percent of 
adult Ethiopian immigrants had less than five years of 
schooling in Ethiopia, before they immigrated to 
Israel. 
 
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Bridging the Education Gap 
-------------------------- 
¶3. The GOI provides students from the Ethiopian 
immigrant community special classes and extra hours of 
instruction, counseling at critical transitional 
junctures such as kindergarten-to-first grade and 
junior high-to-high school.  It also pays their 
university tuition costs.  Statistics from the CBS 
indicate that 1500 Ethiopian Israelis are currently 
pursuing university degrees, compared with less than 
100 five years ago.  The GOI has allocated 
considerable resources to provide preschool education 
for disadvantaged children, many of whom are of 
Ethiopian origin. 
 
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Rescuing Disaffected Youth 
-------------------------- 
¶4. Negist Menguesha, director of the Ethiopian National 
Project (ENP), an umbrella NGO for the development of 
Ethiopian-Israelis, says that as many as 26 percent of 
Ethiopian-Israeli youth either drop out of school or do 
not regularly attend classes.  An increasing number of 
these youth have become involved in illegal activities. 
According to Simcha Getahune, the director of the 
Ethiopian Affairs Unit of ELEM, an NGO that works with 
youth at risk, in 1996, forty-seven Ethiopian youth 
were arrested for violent crimes.  By 2002, the number 
had risen to 220.  In 1996, there was one arrest for a 
drug-related offense, but in 2002 the number had jumped 
to 58.  Similar increases were reported with regard to 
property crimes during this period. 
 
¶5. ELEM estimates that more than 3500 Ethiopian youth 
are at-risk.  To reclaim these youth, it established 
partnerships with the GOI and other NGOs to return the 
youth to the formal education structure, and, when that 
is not an option, to prevent them from coming to harm 
on the streets.  Partnerships offer special academic 
courses to reintroduce youth to the classroom, 
leadership development training, and courses designed 
to strengthen their connection with Israel and Judaism. 
Other activities focus on building cooperation between 
parents, teachers and communities to ensure that 
children stay in school.  Shula Mola, former director 
of the Israeli Association for Ethiopian Jews, insists, 
"Second chance programs prove that when resources are 
directed towards bridging educational and cultural 
gaps, Ethiopian youngsters can make it.  However, 
Israel's budgetary constraints mean that the full 
integration of disaffected Ethiopian youth will be 
delayed." 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Ethiopian Israelis: Struggling for Acceptance 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶6. Jews of Ethiopian origin represent the lowest rung 
of Israel's Jewish socioeconomic ladder. While many of 
the difficulties that they face may be explained, at 
least in part, by the challenges of immigration, 
cultural differences, and the disparity in educational 
levels, this alone does not fully explain the extent of 
their marginalization, particularly in the case of the 
30,000 Ethiopian-Israelis born in Israel. 
 
------------------------- 
Who's a Jew and Who's Not 
------------------------- 
¶7. Many Israelis question the Judaism of Ethiopian 
Israelis (also known as Falash Mura), the majority of 
whom converted to Christianity in Ethiopia, many under 
coercion.  There is a widespread perception that the 
approximately 22,000 Falash Mura who claim Jewish 
ancestry awaiting immigration to Israel do not have 
Jewish roots and simply want to escape economic 
hardship in Ethiopia.  Indeed, the Habad, one of 
Israel's most activist orthodox religious sects, does 
not fully recognize Ethiopian Israelis as Jews.  To 
allay doubts about the Falash Mura's claims of Judaism, 
the GOI investigates the Jewish ancestry of intended 
immigrants and encourages them to undergo orthodox 
conversion, says Batia Eyob, director of the Israel 
Association of Ethiopian Jews (IAEJ), an Ethiopian- 
Israeli advocacy and service NGO.  Until recently, it 
also urged Ethiopian immigrants to enroll their 
children in orthodox schools to strengthen their sense 
of Judaism.  Eighty percent of Ethiopian Israeli 
children attend orthodox schools, according to 
statistics provided by the Adva Center. 
 
¶8. Although even the most critical Ethiopian activists 
insist that the GOI does not sanction discrimination of 
one class of Jew against another, many blame the GOI 
for not doing enough to address what they see as de 
facto discrimination against them.  As one Ethiopian 
Israeli contact put it, "The government wants the world 
to believe that there is only one Jewish people... that 
all of us are the same. Hence, it pretends that there 
are no differences."  This view is not universal. 
Another contact stated, "Israel has done more for my 
people than we could have hoped for."  The difference 
in perspective is largely generational, with younger 
Ethiopians feeling less gratitude to the Jewish state 
and more likely to demand their full integration into 
society, says Avrahm Neguise, director of South Wing to 
Zion, executive director of an advocacy NGO for the 
Falash Mura. 
 
----------------- 
Is Race a Factor? 
----------------- 
¶9. Ethiopian Israelis almost unanimously believe that 
racism and stereotypes play a significant role in their 
troubled assimilation into Israeli society.  Even some 
veteran Israeli contacts admit that Israelis are 
developing a negative image of Ethiopians.  One stated, 
"The absorption of Ethiopians could be a source of 
pride for the country, but if they continue to be 
associated with crime, violence...and other negative 
traits in the minds of other Israelis, there will be 
alienation."  Ethiopian-Israelis say racism limits 
their access to social services, jobs, and education. 
In addition, well-educated Ethiopian Israelis charge 
that others question their qualifications and assume 
that they are less qualified.  One Ethiopian academic 
asked, "Do you know what its like to have some one 
assume that you are illiterate just because you are 
black?"  Another stated, "We want acceptance, to feel 
like all Israel's other Jews, and to be a full part of 
this society, but we can't achieve this goal as long as 
we are dismissed as ignorant and looked upon as proof 
of Israel's charity." Other Ethiopian Israelis point to 
the widespread use in the media of the word "Cushi," a 
Hebrew word meaning "Ethiopian negro," that they find 
offensive, to describe them as anecdotal evidence of 
racial prejudice. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Politics: Not Enough Votes to Really Count 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶10. Ethiopian voters, estimated at 45,000, are not 
enough to woo the major political parties sufficiently 
to put their concerns squarely on the national agenda. 
Israel's political list system in which voters vote for 
party lists instead of individuals also works against 
them.  To date, only one Ethiopian Israeli has been 
elected to the Knesset.  Contacts state that for 
historical reasons, most Ethiopians vote for the 
conservative Likud party, at least in national 
elections.  Likud governments authorized the airlifts 
that brought the first Ethiopian immigrants to Israel. 
 
¶11. In the 2003 national elections, two Ethiopian- 
Israeli candidates ran for the Knesset.  Neither was 
successful.  Ethiopian candidates have done better on 
the local level.  In 2003, Ethiopian candidates won a 
total of 6 seats in five municipalities.  This little 
publicized success indicates that the traditionally 
complacent Ethiopian minority may be becoming more 
politically savvy.  As if to prove the point, in 
November 2003, Ethiopians demonstrated outside of the 
Prime Minister's residence to demand the right of 
family members, still in Ethiopia, to join them in 
Israel.  In January 2004, Foreign Minister Silvan 
Shalom announced plans to speed up the resettlement of 
the Falash Mura, more than 22,000 of whom are waiting 
to immigrate to Israel.  But Shalom's promise provoked 
a backlash from lawmakers who question the claims of 
Jewish roots of the Falash Mura and argue that Israel 
cannot afford the speedy resettlement of thousands of 
destitute Ethiopians.  Press reports quote Absorption 
Minister Tsipi Livni as saying that absorption costs 
for each Falash Mura is high (approximately 100,000 
USD) because of the deep cultural and economic gaps 
that Ethiopians must overcome to acclimate in Israel. 
 
¶12. Ethiopian-Israeli organizations see restriction on 
the immigration of Ethiopians as unjust, particularly 
in light of Israel's proactive efforts to promote the 
immigration of other Jews.  Among the government's 
critics on this issue is Avraham Neguise, executive 
director of South Wing of Zion.  "Putting economic 
considerations before saving Jews is a crime against 
Zionism," he said.  "We demand the government give 
answers.  It is very difficult to imagine why, when we 
are begging other Jews to come from countries like 
Russia, America and Argentina, we raise the question of 
money for the Ethiopian Jews.  I have no doubt this is 
discrimination," Neguise said. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Integration into the Israeli Labor Market 
----------------------------------------- 
¶13. The unemployment rate for Ethiopian Jews is one of 
the highest of any group in Israel.  Their position is 
exacerbated by the fact that they tend to have low 
paying jobs.  Most of them -- 75 percent of working men 
and 62 percent of working women -- are employed as 
unskilled agricultural and manufacturing workers. 
Sixty-five percent of Ethiopian-Israeli households 
depend on welfare, according to the Adva Center. 
Several factors hinder their ability to fully access 
the job market.  The most pressing is their inability 
to compete effectively with veteran Israelis and 
immigrants from developed countries who frequently have 
greater academic and professional training.  Moreover, 
many do not speak Hebrew well, and, arguably, although 
Ethiopians complete military service, they are not part 
of the army's "old boys" network, which often helps 
Israelis find jobs after they complete military 
service.  To address the problem, the GOI has 
instituted vocational training programs for youth.  It 
has also entered into partnerships with NGOs and the 
private sector to encourage companies to hire Ethiopian 
Israelis, says Negist Menguesha.  These programs have 
had only limited success. Sixty-five percent of 
Ethiopian-Israelis between the age of 25 and 54 are 
unemployed. 
 
¶14.  Few Ethiopian-Israelis -- 4 percent of men and 15 
percent of women -- are to be found in the academic, 
liberal, and technical professions.  Of the 94,000 
Jewish licensed teachers in Israel, 30 are of Ethiopian 
origin, according to the Ministry of Education. 
Statistics provided by the Israeli Bar Association 
indicate that there are only five practicing Ethiopian- 
Israeli lawyers.  The largest employer of Ethiopian- 
Israeli women is the public sector.  The majority of 
Ethiopian-Israelis employed by government agencies 
provide services to other Ethiopian immigrants.  The 
number of Ethiopian-Israelis who own their own 
businesses is negligible.  The few that do exist are 
limited to small family shops that sell Ethiopian style 
clothing, music, and spices. KURTZER