by SERGE DUMON
An “absorption center” in Jerusalem, Israel. PHOTO/Vladim Lavrusik
Israel is home to roughly 100,000 Falashas, black Jews of Ethiopian descent. They have no government representation and say they’re treated like second-class citizens. Led by a hitherto unknown man named Molat Araro, the Falashas are finally starting to speak out.
JERUSALEM — “Don’t look at me like a savage,” declares Molat Araro. Until relatively recently, the 26-year-old was almost completely unknown within his Israel-based community of Falashas, black Ethiopian Jews. And he was even more anonymous in the rest of the Hebrew state where these Africans, who are taken for descendants of the mythical Queen of Sheba, are usually very discreet.
But everything changed when this physical education student set off on a march against racism, wearing an Israeli flag and with half his face painted blue. This pilgrimage took him from Kiryat Malahi, a small town in the south of Israel where 20% of the inhabitants are Falashas, to the doors of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem.
Approximately 5,000 other Falashas were waiting for him there to denounce the discrimination they face in Israel. “When our parents emigrated en masse at the start of the 1980s, they thought they were escaping to paradise. But all they have found is contempt,” says Adissu Mohal, a 40-year-old supermarket employee. “Not a day goes by without someone treating me like a cockroach because of the color of my skin.”
“They should be grateful”
The Falashas discontent spilled over three weeks ago when the white inhabitants of Kiryat Malahi agreed in writing not to rent or sell any goods to the blacks. The town hall supported the agreement. “We don’t want these shits in our buildings,” town residents told television reporters. In response, the Falashas, who hadn’t protested since 1995, took to the streets. “We are just like you, listen to us!” the protestors shouted.
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