💭 Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech at the Memorial Day for Ethiopian Jews who perished on their way to Israel via Sudan, in a cooperative evacuation operation between the IDF, the CIA and others in the 1980s known as ‘Operation Moses’.
😈 Erdogan’s Ramadan Rage: I Will Send Netanyahu To Allah | Use Anger to Come Closer to Hellah
✞ In the last three years, about two million children of Aksumite Ethiopia died in war, famine and disease to save the unsaved Gentile Africans.
✞ In the past three years, thousands of Ethiopian Israelis have died in war to save the Muslims and Jews.
❖ Jerusalem 3,000 years ago: The Arrival of The Queen of Sheba, the Mother of the Ethiopians, around 1000 BC. King Solomon gave Gaza to the Queen of Sheba / Ethiopia
❖ Gaza, 2,000 years ago: In the New Testament, Apostle Philip was sent to Gaza to evangelize the Ethiopian. (33-35 AD Acts 8:26-40)
❖ Gaza, 2024: “Ethiopians fight there like lions. They are considered excellent soldiers in these units.” Out of the 120 outstanding soldiers, 10 are Ethiopians, or five times their proportion in the population. Out of loyalty and endless love for the State of Israel, many of them immigrated to Israel, mobilized, fought and some were even killed to protect our miracle like no other – the State of Israel, our only home on earth.
👮 Some 26 soldiers and policemen are among the Ethiopians who have been killed in the current war, as well as 3 civilians; Data shows the rate of casualties among Ethiopians is much higher than their numbers in general population, as is the case among the outstanding soldiers; ‘Ethiopians fight there like lions. They are considered excellent soldiers in their units’
The Iron Swords War will be remembered as the War of Independence of the Ethiopians in Israel because this is the war in which the public was exposed even more to the great contribution of Ethiopians to Israel’s security.
The proportion of Ethiopians in Israeli society is 1.8%. Over 170,000 Ethiopians live in Israel. But among the fallen, the number of Ethiopians stands at 26 out of 716 among the members of the security forces; that is, more than 3.5%, twice their proportion in the general population.
An expression of the great contribution of Ethiopians to the IDF could be seen at the ceremony for outstanding soldiers at the President’s Residence on Independene Day. Out of the 120 outstanding soldiers, 10 are Ethiopians, or five times their proportion in the population.
Unofficial data from the army indicates that the number of Ethiopians in the commando units is many times more than their proportion in the general population. “Ethiopians fight there like lions. They are considered excellent soldiers in these units,” said a source familiar with the matter. There are also a higher number of Ethiopians among the seriously wounded. “All in all, there are dozens of soldiers from the community who were wounded in the war,” the source said.
Minister of Immigration and Absorption Ofir Sofer said the reality of the data hit home just this week.
“The terrible period of the long war brings us together with the strengths that exist in our wonderful nation,” he told Ynet. “These things are especially true for the ex-Ethiopian community. Just this week on Memorial Day eve, I attended the funeral of the late Sergeant Yosef Dassa, his mother’s only son, who was a fearless soldier and fell in battle in the Gaza Strip. Family members and friends eulogized Yosef, but it was hard to miss the eulogy of the two cousins, also soldiers in the IDF’s best units, who are especially mature and full of Zionism, and who returned from the Gaza Strip for the funeral. And immediately after they returned to continue fighting. With this picture I entered the 76th Independence Day.”
The chairman of the Jewish Agency, Major General (res.) Doron Almog, added that “the members of the Ethiopian community contributed and continue to contribute to the security of the country with a tremendous mobilization as soldiers in all field units. Out of loyalty and endless love for the State of Israel, many of them immigrated to Israel, mobilized, fought and some were even killed to protect our miracle like no other – the State of Israel, our only home on earth. They, among the rest of our determined warriors, give us hope and pride. The Ethiopian community has grown up soldiers and officers in senior positions in the IDF and the country as a whole theirs.”
♱ Philip The Evangelist and The Ethiopian Official
😇 Saint Cyril of Jerusalem:
“In this power of the Holy Ghost, Philip also in the Name of Christ at one time in the city of Samaria drove away the unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice; and healed the palsied and the lame, and brought to Christ great multitudes of them that believe. To whom Peter and John came down, and with prayer, and the laying on of hands, imparted the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, from which Simon Magus alone was declared an alien, and that justly. And at another time Philip was called by the Angel of the Lord in the way, for the sake of that most godly Ethiopian, the Eunuch, and heard distinctly the Spirit Himself saying, Go near, and join yourself to this chariot. He instructed the Eunuch, and baptized him, and so having sent into Ethiopia a herald of Christ, according as it is written, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hand unto God , he was caught away by the Angel, and preached the Gospel in the cities in succession.” [13]
“And who then is this, and what is the sign of Him that rises? In the words of the Prophet that follow in the same context, He says plainly, For then will I turn to the peoples a language: since, after the Resurrection, when the Holy Ghost was sent forth the gift of tongues was granted, that they might serve the Lord under one yoke. And what other token is set forth in the same Prophet, that they should serve the LORD under one yoke? From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring me offerings. Thou knowest what is written in the Acts, when the Ethiopian eunuch came from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. When therefore the Scriptures tell both the time and the peculiarity of the place, when they tell also the signs which followed the Resurrection, have thou henceforward a firm faith in the Resurrection, and let no one stir thee from confessing Christ risen from the dead .” [14]
😇 Saint Ephrem the Syrian
“ Very glistening are the pearls of Ethiopia, as it is written, Who gave thee to Ethiopia [the land] of black men. He that gave light to the Gentiles, both to the Ethiopians and unto the Indians did His bright beams reach.
The eunuch of Ethiopia upon his chariot saw Philip: the Lamb of Light met the dark man from out of the water. While he was reading, the Ethiopian was baptised and shone with joy, and journeyed on!
He made disciples and taught, and out of black men he made men white. And the dark Ethiopic women became pearls for the Son; He offered them up to the Father, as a glistening crown from the Ethiopians.” [15]
😇 King Solomon, Queen of Sheba, and the Ark of the Covenant
According to ancient records, the Queen of Sheba ruled the Ethiopian region in about 1,000 BC. This was the same Queen of Sheba that the Bible tells us traveled to Israel to meet King Solomon. According to tradition, the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon conceived a child who grew up to be King Menelik, the first in an unbroken dynasty of Ethiopian rulers.
Remarkably, a number of ancient texts record this tradition, including a 14th century document known as the ‘The Glory of the Kings’ that says Solomon and Sheba had a son named Menelik who later returned to Ethiopia with his family and the Ark of the Covenant.
We also know that for centuries, Northern Ethiopians have practiced ancient rituals very similar to those of Old Testament Israel and explicitly claim descent from the tribes of Israel.
In recent years, modern genetic testing has validated some of these claims. For example, an Ethiopian group known as the Beta Israel – or, House of Israel — was officially recognized by the Israeli government in 1973. The Gefat—another isolated Ethiopian tribe estimated at twenty to thirty thousand people—lives further south in the rural countryside. The Gefat have faithfully observed Jewish laws and customs for hundreds of years. In fact, their name, Gefat, means “the blowers,” and according to their history, they were chosen by the kings of Ethiopia centuries ago to blow a special horn known as the “shofar” ahead of the Ark of the Covenant in official processionals.
The Ark of the Covenant is an ornate box carrying Moses’s copy of the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, the rod of Aaron, and pieces of the manna that miraculously appeared to sustain the Israelite tribes in the wilderness. The Ark served as the centerpiece of worship and religious life for the tribes of Israel from the time of the Exodus until the Babylonian destruction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC.
The fate of the Ark of the Covenant is one of the great mysteries of history. Was it destroyed beyond recognition when the Babylonians demolished the Jerusalem temple? Was it carried away by the Babylonians and the gold melted down? Or was it secretly whisked away from Jerusalem by courageous priests? No one really knows for sure. Nevertheless, almost 45 million Orthodox Christian Ethiopians firmly believe that the Ark of the Covenant was taken, almost 3,000 years ago, to Ethiopia.
✡️ Mazi Melesa Pilip is a “remarkable candidate,” said Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, in an endorsement.
The Republican candidate for Congress in a crucial Long Island special election introduced herself to voters Friday by describing her military service in Israel and with a Star of David on her necklace.
For Mazi Melesa Pilip, being Jewish is central to her identity.
New York Republicans selected Mazi Melesa Pilip, an Ethiopian-born, Orthodox Jew and Israel Defense Forces veteran, on Thursday to run for New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
A current Nassau County legislator, Pilip is running for the seat that Republican Rep. George Santos held before being expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives, on Dec. 1, following federal criminal indictments for fraud. It was also revealed that Santos had fabricated his backstory, including his supposed Jewish heritage.
Santos’s inventions stand in dramatic contrast with Pilip’s real-life biography. Born in Ethiopia, she emigrated to Israel as a refugee in 1991 as part of an Israeli operation to airlift Ethiopian Jews. She served in the IDF as a paratrooper before moving to the United States with her husband and becoming a U.S. citizen. A mother of seven, Pilip was first elected to the Nassau County legislature in 2021.
The New York 3rd district special election holds national significance, given how narrowly Republicans control the House. Following the expulsion of Santos, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wields an eight-seat, fractious majority.
“Winning this battleground seat is critical to maintaining the GOP majority in the House of Representatives,” Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a statement. He endorsed Pilip, whom he called “a remarkable candidate whose strength of character and firm principles are clear to anyone who looks at her life story and her work.”
NY-03 was one of several Republican pickups in New York in the 2022 midterms, though Pilip will face a difficult challenger in the Democratic nominee, Tom Souzzi, who previously held the seat and has been a figure in Long Island politics for decades.
✞ The reason for this substantial amount of immigrants identifying as Christians is that their aliyah is considered a humanitarian act, of reuniting family members.
Two-thirds of the immigrants from Ethiopia to Israel between 2020 and 2022 identified as Christians, according to official data from the Population and Immigration Authority.
The official data was publicized by The Israeli Immigration Policy Center (IIPC) and was seen by The Jerusalem Post.
It reveals that out of more than 5,000 immigrants from Ethiopia who arrived in Israel as part of Operation Tzur Israel, 3,301 identified as Christians. In contrast, only about 1,773 identified as descendants of Jews, though this wasn’t proved to be true according to Israeli authorities. Notably, none of them were found to be eligible for aliyah under the Law of Return.
The reason for this high number identifying as Christians, is that their aliyah is considered a humanitarian act of family reunification. Therefore, it is now assumed that many members of the “Jewish communities” in Ethiopia are actually not Jewish and practice a different religion.
According to a statement on behalf of the center, a conservative Israeli think-tank, “these findings are consistent with previous reports from the IIPC. The institute’s analysis of data from the Population and Immigration Authority showed that since 2000, only about 10% of Ethiopian immigrants identified as Jews upon their arrival in Israel.”
How the Israeli government is addressing an influx of Ethiopian immigrants
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli government appointed a special envoy to investigate and then to recommend a solution for the aliyah crisis from Ethiopia. Thousands of Ethiopian citizens claim they are entitled to aliyah but the Israeli government says that aliyah from Ethiopia is at an end.
IIPC director Dr. Yona Cherki commented on these findings in a statement on Wednesday, claiming that “the State of Israel should enable every Jew who wishes to immigrate to Israel to do so. The transit camps in Ethiopia are periodically emptied and refilled, and every time a substantial number of people await their chance to immigrate. Data from the Population and Immigration Authority suggests that if there are individuals in Ethiopia who are entitled to return under the Jewish lineage, they aren’t making the move.
“Conversely, those who are immigrating don’t hold the right to do so,” Cherki said, adding that the new envoy on behalf of the government should “define consistent criteria for immigration to Israel, applicable across all diasporas, in alignment with the Law of Return.”
As mentioned, Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer, has appointed Brig.-Gen. (res.) Harel Knafo to spearhead a team that will assess Israel’s current immigration policy concerning Ethiopia on Wednesday. Pending approval from the Civil Service Commission, Knafo and his team will delve into the immigration challenges, particularly focusing on those awaiting aliyah in Addis Ababa and Gondar. They will subsequently submit their findings to Sofer.
Knafo commanded the Inter-Army Command and Staff College, headed the Southern Command, and led the 890th Battalion of the Paratroopers. Earlier this week, Israeli citizens of Ethiopian descent and advocates of Ethiopian Jewish immigration assembled outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. They demanded swift action to safeguard those eligible for aliyah from the turbulent Gondar region.
They pointed out to the Knesset that an astonishing 4,226 individuals from the camps in Gondar and Addis Ababa had filed requests for aliyah. As the situation worsens, particularly in areas like Gondar, those awaiting their journey to Israel face dire threats to their lives.
Last Thursday, Israel carried out a significant rescue operation, evacuating over 200 Israeli and Ethiopian nationals from Ethiopia due to the intensifying conflict between the Ethiopian Army and the FANO militia.
The rescue comprised three planes that transported Israeli citizens, Jewish Agency personnel, Project TEN volunteers, and immigrants. The joint initiative was a collaboration between the Prime Minister’s Office and The Jewish Agency, with the security operations managed by the agency’s security officers.
A coalition of advocacy groups supporting Ethiopian Jews voiced their concerns on Thursday. They emphasized, “The Department of Aliyah and Integration seems disconnected from reality.”
They added, “Thousands of Israelis, ranging from soldiers to ordinary citizens, took to the streets recently, expressing their frustrations over the government’s seeming inertia. They’re deeply concerned about our kin caught in the conflict near Gondar. A significant number of Jews are in imminent danger in Ethiopia, accentuated by the recent declaration of a state of emergency.”
Of these, 1,226 Jews have been officially recognized and qualify for immigration. However, despite its obligations, the Israeli government has not been proactive. The aliyah minister’s silence is deafening. His decision to form a committee “to review the matter” seems like a mere tactic to buy time.
A report provided by the advocacy groups underscores the discrepancy between the reported figures and reality. “While news of the rescue operation in Gondar was heartening at first, the truth is only 44 out of the 204 rescued were eligible immigrants; the majority were Israeli citizens.”
Too bad; We Ethiopians are in an age where we face suffering, hatred and violence wherever we go. Even if we are in Ethiopia, Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Australia, we will not escape the challenge anywhere.
It is surprising that when the Jewish US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is heading to Ethiopia; Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu too planned to go to “Pergamon” Berlin; However, they delayed their visit because the Western media are shouting loud that “Israel is violating human rights”.
The German government is under pressure for hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was due to arrive in Berlin later Wednesday and facing strong criticism over planned legal reforms.
On the eve of Netanyahu’s departure for Germany and ahead of a planned trip to Britain, 1,000 writers, artists and academics wrote to the two European nations’ ambassadors urging their governments to scrap the visits.
👉 So let’s compare this with the situation in Ethiopia and encounter ‘double standards:
When the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken heades departs for Ethiopia to meet the barbaric Gala-Oromo Ahmed Ali, who massacred more than a million Orthodox Christians, all the media and governments that said, “We will fight for human rights” say and do nothing. Hypocritical, ugly and dirty world!
💭 Mixed Jewish-Arab city has been a flashpoint of nationalistic crime in the past.
Israel Police have arrested two Arabs on suspicion that they set fire to the “Beit HaGadzo,” a cultural center for Ethiopian Jews located behind the pre-military training school in the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood of Lod.
“We will not be silent,” local residents responded, and announced that they would be holding a demonstration. “At 8:30 p.m. we will all gather at the site for the evening prayer and raise a cry of protest.”
Investigators from the Lod Police Station used advanced technological means to investigate the crime leading to the swift apprehension of two Lod residents aged 18 and 25, who are suspected of the arson. At the conclusion of their interrogation, it will be decided whether to ask the court to extend their detention.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 10, 2020
“I had to speak my fluent Amharic to survive,” said Filimon Shishay, a 21-year-old Tigrayan who said he encountered the Fano and had to part with the $5 he had with him. “They hate us,” he said.
Tens of thousands have sought safety in Sudan, where they gave accounts to Times journalists of a devastating and complex conflict that threatens Ethiopia’s stability
The armed men who stopped Ashenafi Hailu along the dirt road dragged him by a noose so they could save bullets.
Mr. Ashenafi, 24, was racing on his motorcycle to the aid of a childhood friend trapped by the Ethiopian government’s military offensive in the northern region of Tigray when a group of men on foot confronted him. They identified themselves as militia members of a rival ethnic group, he said, and they took his cash and began beating him, laughing ominously.
“Finish him!” Mr. Ashenafi remembered one of the men saying.
As they tightened the noose around his neck and began pulling him along the road, Mr. Ashenafi was sure he was going to die, and he eventually passed out. But he said he awoke alone near a pile of bodies, children among them. His motorcycle was gone.
ImageAshenafi Hailu was attacked by a group of Fano militia members. After they learned that he was ethnic Tigray, they robbed him, tied a noose around his neck and dragged him until he passed out.
Ashenafi Hailu was attacked by a group of Fano militia members. After they learned that he was ethnic Tigray, they robbed him, tied a noose around his neck and dragged him until he passed out.
Mr. Ashenafi and dozens of other Tigrayan refugees fled the violence and settled outside the remote and dusty town of Hamdayet, a community of just a few thousand people near the border, where I spoke to them. Their firsthand accounts, shared a month after Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, declared war on the Tigray region, detail a devastating conflict that has become a grisly wellspring of looting, ethnic antagonism and killings.
Many of the refugees have lingered here rather than moving on to the more established refugee camps farther into Sudan, staying closer to home so they can get any news about their towns or missing loved ones. But little information is getting out, with mobile networks and the internet blocked for weeks by the Ethiopian government.
Nearly 50,000 have fled to Sudan so far, in what the United Nations has called the worst exodus of refugees Ethiopia has seen in more than two decades. And their accounts contradict the repeated claims from Mr. Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for ending the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea, that no civilians are being hurt.
The Tigrayans describe being caught between indiscriminate military shelling and a campaign of killing, rape and looting by government-allied ethnic militias. Several told me that they saw dozens of bodies along the route as they fled their shops, homes and farms and took to the long road to the border with Sudan, in stifling heat.
As the fighting in Tigray continues, it is degenerating into a guerrilla war that could unravel both Ethiopia’s national fabric and the stability of the entire Horn of Africa region. That includes Eritrea, which is allied with Ethiopia against the Tigray and has been shelled by the rebel forces; and Sudan, which has heavily deployed its army along its restive border with Ethiopia even as it has allowed refugees to cross.
The Tigray make up about 6 percent of Ethiopia’s 110 million people, and they were the arbiters of power and money in the country from 1991, when they helped dismantle a military dictatorship, until 2018, when anti-government protests catapulted Mr. Abiy to power.
Mr. Abiy had sought to emphasize national unity and diversity in a multiethnic Ethiopia, even as he began methodically excluding Tigrayan figures from public life and condemning their abuses while they were in power. Now, the conflict stands at stark odds with the legacy he was seeking, and with the stability of the entire country.
If Mr. Abiy’s aim was to unite an increasingly divided country, then “this conflict has made that harder to achieve, and so increased the likelihood of serious ongoing political instability,” said William Davison, a senior Ethiopia analyst with the International Crisis Group who was recently expelled from the country.
Adding to the deadly mix are the involvement of rival ethnic militia groups. One of them is the Fano, a militia from the Amhara ethnic group. Along with Amhara regional government security forces, Fano took part in the intervention in Tigray, Mr. Davison said.
While Fano is a term loosely used to refer to young Amhara militias or protesters, Mr. Davison added that it is also “the name given to youthful Amhara vigilante groups that become more active during times when there is perceived to be insecurity that is not being managed by the authorities.”
Tigrayan refugees in Sudan said that Fano fighters attacked and maimed them, ransacked their properties and extorted them as they sought to flee. Many of the Tigrayans, including Mr. Ashenafi, said that they were afraid of going back and that the experience had left them sleepless and scarred.
After Mr. Ashenafi awoke and saw the bodies around him, he trudged through a nearby forest to reach the home of his friend, Haftamu Berhanu, who took him in. Photos taken by Mr. Haftamu and seen by The New York Times showed Mr. Ashenafi lying on his back, white skin peeled away around his neck from the noose.
For days afterward, Mr. Ashenafi could not talk or swallow anything and communicated with his friend through pointing or writing things down.
“It was heartbreaking,” Mr. Haftamu said of the days caring for his friend.
“I didn’t expect in our life that our government would kill us,” Mr. Ashenafi said. “I am frightened so much. I am not sleeping at night.”
Many of the refugees who made it to Sudan have been resettled to the Um Rakuba camp about 43 miles away from the border. But many are also staying around a refugee transit point in Hamdayet, hoping to return home or reunite with their families once it is safe.
In this dusty outpost, the refugees convene every morning at the Tekeze River, a natural border between Ethiopia and Sudan, to shower, collect water and clean whatever clothes they brought with them. On a recent afternoon, as children dived into the flowing river and Ethiopian music played from a nearby phone, the refugees recounted scenes of horror that they witnessed.
Many told me that they came from Humera, an agricultural town of about 30,000 people near both the Sudanese and Eritrean borders. Thousands suddenly fled the town with whatever they could carry when shelling began around midnight from what the refugees said was the direction of Eritrea.
Some gathered first at nearby churches, but after hearing that other churches had been shelled, they started the hourslong journey on foot to Sudan. They said that militia fighters began streaming in.
“The Amhara militia cut people’s heads,” said a Humera resident named Meles, who wanted to be identified by only his first name out of fear of retribution.
Meles, who owned a small cafe, said that the Fano’s reputation preceded them and that just as he feared, he encountered many dead bodies along the way to Sudan. As he spoke to me, a crowd gathered near him on the banks of the river, many nodding and verbally affirming his account as he told it.
At least 139 children are among those who arrived in Sudan unaccompanied, many of whom are now at risk of abuse and discrimination, according to the organization Save the Children.
With the Tigray region sandwiched between the Amhara region and Eritrea, which is aligned with the Ethiopian national government, Meles said he was glad that refugees like him had another outlet for escape.
“Thank God there’s Sudan for us to turn to,” he said.
“I had to speak my fluent Amharic to survive,” said Filimon Shishay, a 21-year-old Tigrayan who said he encountered the Fano and had to part with the $5 he had with him. “They hate us,” he said.
There has long been enmity between the Tigray and Amhara. When Tigrayan rebels seized power in 1991, Amharas claimed that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which governed the region, occupied land that historically belonged to them.
“The widespread assumption is T.P.L.F. wanted to annex these areas in order to have a border with Sudan and to tap into the fertile land for economic development,” Hone Mandefro, an Ethiopian analyst and a doctoral candidate in sociology and anthropology at Concordia University in Canada, said in an email.
Mr. Davison of the International Crisis Group said that with Amhara security and militia forces active in Tigray in recent weeks, and with some Amhara administrators put in place there, “it appears to be a de facto Amhara occupation of territory they claim the T.P.L.F. annexed.”
The move is likely to lead to violent Tigrayan reprisals, he said, as may have already occurred in the town of Mai Kadra, where human rights groups have said forces loyal to the liberation front massacred as many as 600 people, most of them Amhara.
Many refugees in Hamdayet blamed politicians, and particularly Mr. Abiy, for pitting civilians against one another. “The Amhara and the Tigray are one,” Negese Berhe Hailu, a 25-year-old engineer, said.
Hadas Hagos, 67, fled her home in Humera — which is part of the larger West Tigray area the Amharas claim — and worried she wouldn’t be able to go back or see the family members she left behind. Other refugees who arrived later informed her that her home had been looted.
“We fought for freedom and democracy,” said Ms. Hadas, breaking into tears as she recounted how she and her family fought against the Marxist regime in the 1980s, and how she lost her brother to the war. “We don’t deserve this kind of life.”
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