Ethiopia Takes Israel’s Offer of Food, Medicine Despite Airlift
Just days after denouncing the Israeli airlift of Ethiopian Jews, Ethiopia has accepted an offer of Israeli food and medicine for its famine victims, relief officials said today.
Officials of Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said an Israeli-registered merchant ship carrying the consignment will leave the Red Sea port of Eilat on Jan. 27 and dock at Assab, Ethiopia, two days later.
The Israelis will send half a ton of antibiotics, 55 tons of food, 800 tents and 10 field kitchens in accordance with a list from the International Red Cross and Ethiopian Red Cross, the officials said.
The consignment, valued at about $250,000, was donated by individuals and companies during a government-approved fund-raising campaign. Israel has no formal ties with Ethiopia’s 10-year-old Marxist government.
Ethiopia last week condemned as “sinister” Israel’s recent “Operation Moses,” an airlift that ferried an estimated 12,000 Ethiopian Jews to the Jewish state.
Western reports said the black Jews trekked to Sudan before boarding the planes. Israeli officials say the airlift was stopped Sunday because of publicity.
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