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Issue 15, November 2006
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Welcome to issue nineteen of  ,
the monthly newsletter from the MSD Interpharma HIV Team.
Since its creation in 1948, Israel has become expert at absorbing waves of newcomers. Its population numbers 6.3 million, of which 110,000 are of Ethiopian origin.
As Jews, the Ethiopians arrived not as refugees or asylum-seekers, but with the automatic right to settle in the country and take part in the life of their new nation. It is worth noting that every Jewish immigrant to Israel is entitled to citizenship and to the complete range of benefits offered to the local population, whatever the reason for coming to Israel.
Fleeing years of persecution, famine and war, Ethiopian Jews headed back to the Promised Land in 1977. Mid 1984 saw the beginning of a mass rescue operation entitled "Mivtza Moshe" (Operation Moses), during which 8,000 Jews were flown from Khartoum, Sudan to Israel. In May 1991, the political and economic situation in Ethiopia deteriorated so much that the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government decided that it was safer to airlift and absorb the remaining Ethiopian Jews gathered in Addis Ababa. "Mivtza Shlomo" (Operation Solomon) began on May 24, 1991. Over the non stop course of 48 hours, 14,325 people were flown to Israel. Following Operation Solomon, small waves of Ethiopian immigrants called "Falasha Mura" (Ethiopian Jews converted to Christianity) continued to immigrate, at the rate of 500 each month, in order to reunite with family members already living in Israel. Today, the 18,000 to 25,000 Falasha Mura remaining in Addis Ababa are more likely to travel to Israel in the coming months than to return to the villages that they fled decades ago.
This exodus brought its own challenges. While the massive immigration of the Ethiopian Jews began almost twenty years ago, the difficulties of settling traditional-minded, tribal people from a rural Third World country into an advanced urban, individualistic, consumer-oriented society still remain. The considerable social and cultural differences between this ethnic minority and Israel's other communities are standing in the way of their full integration and undermining their health and well-being, especially when it comes to tackling HIV/AIDS. To know more, click here...
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