The Rescue of the Falashas

In the last few days, the news has been speckled with an unusual story about the rescue of the Jews of Ethiopia, called Falashas. Thousands of these people have been secretly transported to Israel over the last few months. The mission’s success, however, depended upon the cooperation of countries that do not recognize Israel and with which that state has no formal relations. Consequently, when details of the airlift became known, an outcry from radical Arab states led to the suspension of the effort, leaving thousands without hope.

The tragedy that has befallen those who had anticipated salvation has been duly noted in the press. The Los Angeles Times, in a Jan. 8 editorial, called it “the meanest of political pressures.” Indeed, The Times is correct when it criticizes these states for using starving people as political pawns.

Yet it is not the famine alone that explains the reasons for the mission called “Operation Moses,” or the real tragedy of its cancellation.

The state of Israel and the world Jewish community are not saving Falashas simply because there is famine in Ethiopia. Millions of Africans are starving but they do not wish to escape their country; they need to be fed.

The Falashas (the name means “strangers”) are different. Certainly they suffer the effects of famine as cruelly as their countrymen. The problem is that they are not treated as countrymen by their own government. They are, instead, a persecuted people, prohibited from practicing their religion and barred from emigrating to a land where they would be free. Plans to save the Falashas did not begin with the famine; they began when the Falashas lost their liberty.

The persecution of the Falashas has been made painfully obvious since the mere disclosure of the rescue mission prompted calls for its cancellation by Ethiopia’s allies. Nothing less than anti-Semitism explains the motivation for this action. The Ethiopian government and its friends in the Arab world simply do not want to acknowledge that a Jewish community should be accorded the same liberty as other peoples.

Yet the Jewish people have learned to cherish freedom from a unique past. Since the end of World War II, the Jewish people have been true to the promise, “Never again.” In the struggle for freedom, no Jewish life is too unimportant to be saved. The struggle of a single Jew is the struggle of Jews everywhere.

It is no wonder, then, that this mission has been dubbed “Operation Moses.” Its hope is as old as the story of the Exodus from Egypt-- the desire to be free. This is not simply a Jewish hope. It is part and parcel of the aspirations of all people who cherish freedom. MATTHEW ROSS Malibu The tragic part of the Ethiopian people has produced a great outpouring of generous help and concern by the United States and Europe. Russia, which has a vested interest in Ethiopia, has also helped, but the Third World countries, even the very wealthy ones, have done little if anything.

Many of our black leaders also seem more concerned with the “apartheid” of South Africa, which regrettably denies freedom, than with the crisis in Ethiopia, which denies survival. Despite the drought, much of the responsibility for the famine can be blamed on a repressive regime more concerned wth power and ideology than the well-being of their people. And yet, no matter how brutal, oppressive, corrupt and evil a Third World government can be, we never hear a word of condemnation from the people who violently protest the shortcomings of Western-oriented governments.

One result of the Ethiopian famine has been to make possible the rescue of the Falashas, the black Jews of Ethiopia, by the Israeli government and private Jewish organizations. Persecution and oppression by their government had reduced this once large community of 15,000 to 30,000 and to extreme poverty and deprivation. The operation had to be carried on in secret because of the opposition of the government and the Arab states.

Israel also, unlike the Arab states, would not shove them into refugee camps, where they would be propaganda hostages, but would provide education and training so that they could become full participating citizens of a free democracy.

But now the secret operation has been disclosed. The Arab countries, who have contributed little if anything, have demanded it be stopped. So much for humanity. The Jewish community which has been generous in its support of this rescue operation, has the right to demand that a world that did nothing when Hitler destroyed the Jews of Europe now bend every effort to save the ancient remnant of the Jews of Ethiopia, who are black.

I look to the black leaders of America, whom we supported in their cause, to take up this fight. I urge leaders like Jesse Jackson, with influence in the Third World, to use his influence with the Arabs to “let our people go” and to speak out against oppression regardless of the color of the oppressor.

SIDNEY WEINSTEIN Palm Springs Your editorial on the exodus of Ethiopian Jews states that the operation should be cloaked in silence. Shouldn’t it have been kept silent from the beginning?

JOHN DEGATINA Los Angeles The fate of the Falashas, the Jews of Ethiopia, has long been the subject of much concern to the Jewish community. Only recently has their plight been publicized by the leak of news about Israel’s airlift of Falashas.

The Falashas are believed to have arrived in Ethiopia about 2,500 years ago after the fall of the first Temple in Jerusalem. Once a strong and vibrant community, with about half a million people, the Falashas have dwindled to about 18,000 in Ethiopia today. They have been the victims of discrimination and degradation because of their determination to maintain Jewish values and customs in a society that views any belief that is not distinctly Christian or Muslim with suspicion.

The U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights practices for 1983 confirmed that the Falashas are endangered, and warned of their getting caught in the cross-fire of guerrilla fighting. In addition, the drought in Ethiopia has caused the Falasha numbers to dwindle.

Israel’s role in saving Ethiopian Jewry has been given a new sense of urgency because of the drought-stricken conditions in Ethiopia. Already 12,000 Ethiopian Jews have been smuggled to Israel. More are awaiting evacuation from Ethiopia.

The leak of information about the airlift has jeopardized the fate of the Falashas. Ethiopia should cooperate with Israel to save the Falashas. Sudan, Ethiopia’s neighbor and a country where many Falashas have sought refuge, should also cooperate.

JEFFREY L. DANIELS Northridge Once again Israel has scored a brilliant victory by getting Uncle Sam to finance the airlift of Ethiopian Jews from the Sudan to Israel where they will provide a more docile source of cheap labor than the Palestinians. More Palestinians will have to be driven from their homes and farms on the West Bank into exile to provide housing for the new Falasha settlers just as their fathers before them were driven from their lands to provide housing for earlier waves of Jewish settlers arriving from Europe in ’47.

HELEN T. HELLMANN Mission Viejo