Ethiopia Hits Airlifting of Jews to Israel : Government Attacks ‘Gross Interference in Domestic Affairs’

The Ethiopian government today condemned the secret airlift of thousands of Jews from the drought-stricken nation to Israel, where officials organized the exodus with the help of a reported $5 million in U.S. aid.

Published reports said the United States had given the $5 million and also said Israeli officials are in America raising an additional $300 million needed for resettlement costs.

The Ethiopian government called the operation “a gross interference in its domestic affairs” and said some of the Ethiopian black Jews, known as Falashas, may have been forced to take part in the airlift. Most in the group are believed to have been transported from the Sudan. (Story, Page 15.)

The Ethiopian government indirectly accused the United States, Sudan’s largest aid donor, of involvement in the airlift and flatly denied that Ethiopia had worked out any sort of deal with Israel to let the Falasha Jews leave for Israel.

‘Lost Tribe of Dan’

The condemnations and accusations were contained in a Foreign Ministry statement transmitted to foreign news agencies in Nairobi, Kenya. The statement was the first official word from the Ethiopian government on the airlift.

Meanwhile, thousands of Falashas were placed in hotels, hospitals and immigration centers in Israel as the story of the cost of moving what has been called the remnants of the “lost tribe of Dan,” one of the 12 tribes of ancient Israel, began to emerge.

The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported that the estimated price of absorbing the Falashas over the next two years will be $300 million, “some of which will be funded by the Jewish people abroad and some by U.S. refugee aid money.”

Immigration Minister Yaacov Zur has been in the United States seeking contributions.

Many of the immigrants are suffering from malnutrition and tropical diseases, officials said. Nearly 8 million people are threatened by starvation in Ethiopia, where 300,000 died in 1984 in Africa’s worst drought.

Special U.S. Contribution

Israel Radio announcements this past week have spoken of the United States contributing a special $5 million to help absorb immigrants but they did not specify which group would get the help.

The Chadashot newspaper said Prime Minister Shimon Peres raised the issue of the Falashas during his visit to Washington in October and said, “Secretary of State George Shultz was pushed to act and made available a sum of $5 million for the operation.”

A Foreign Ministry official said the black Jews are being received warmly, but mayors of towns in southern and northern Israel were reportedly reluctant to receive more than a token number of immigrants.

“It is an injustice to bring them here,” Rafael Hochman, the mayor of Eilat, told Koteret Rashit (Banner Headline) news magazine. “We don’t have enough jobs to go around, and they would end up with all the dirty work.”