April 15, 2008

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent

GONDAR, Ethiopia - The director of the Falashmura compound in Gondar, Getu Zemene, is very worried. One of his guards was murdered the previous night at the construction site of a school being built by the organization that runs the compound, the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ).

NACOEJ, which received land for the school from the Gondar municipality, invests about $80,000 a month in the compound, a huge amount in Ethiopian terms. That sum will grow, together with Zemene's staff, when construction of the school starts. In the reality of Gondar, this is a reason for criminals to take action. Ten months ago, Zemene himself was the target of a shooting, in which a local policeman was killed. But Zemene, formerly a health inspector at a local slaughterhouse, does not want to talk about these matters. Instead he complains that for 17 years Israel has not recognized his eligibility to immigrate. "Ariel Sharon went to France and told the Jews there to immigrate," he says bitterly. "But he doesn't want us because we are poor and black. How long can the 12,000 people who live here be ignored?" he says.

NACOEJ decides who will enter the camp and receive food, and also closely supervises who may visit. Last week a group of young Jews visiting the camp was asked not to use two local interpreters, but rather that all conversation would go through NACOEJ interpreters. The camp's directors also coordinate money coming from relatives in Israel, a major source of income for camp residents.

NACOEJ says that in addition to 4,000 Falashmura who have been processed and rejected for immigration by Israel's Interior Ministry, approximately another 8,700 Falashmura live in the camp whom Israel refuses to receive. Zemene presents a list of 400 young people who have not been allowed to immigrate because they are over 18. He says another 360 have opened files but have not been interviewed. The Interior Ministry says another 651 missed their interviews because they were not in Gondar. The ministry is now willing to bring back a clerk to interview those who were absent previously, if they return now, but will not discuss bringing the others to Israel.

NACOEJ says that if Israel will process the 8,700 residents of the camp and bring them to Israel, it will not ask for any more to be brought in and will cease its activities in Ethiopia. The government representatives say they do not believe NACOEJ will do so, pointing out that construction of the school is a long-term project.

NACOEJ has been accused of creating international pressure on Israel to allow in more Falashmura. Dani Adamesu, head of the Israeli Association for Ethiopian Jews says "there is a conspiracy of silence in the community. NACOEJ is pushing more and more people into the compounds although there are those who continue their relationship with the church. They are creating an almost irreversible situation."

Yosef Aneo, an Ethiopian Jew with Canadian citizenship who represents foreign companies in Ethiopia says that "it's easy to go to the villages and say there's a possibility to come to Israel, and bring in another 50,000."

Avraham Negoseh, who heads the umbrella organization of Ethiopian Jews and works with NACOEJ, counters the charge that others will come in place of the 8,700 if they immigrate. "This is a virtual problem. You can't operate just based on paranoia that more blacks will come." Joseph Feit, a NACOEJ leader, says: "It must be asked why the only country for which Israel determines an immigration quota is Ethiopia."