Asras Damalash begins our interview cheerful and confident, but very soon her eyes fill with tears. "My biggest fear is that she won't get to see her granddaughters," she says, talking about her grandmother.
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Asras' mother died when she was just one year old, and her grandmother raised her instead. In fact, Asras, 30, only learned that who she thought was her mother was actually her grandmother when she turned 18 and received official documents from the state. She also found out that back in Ethiopia, she had a father and two older sisters.
Video: Asras at the Knesset / Credit: Office of the Knesset Spokesperson
"My grandmother, whom I call mother to this day, wanted to give me a sense of belonging to the family, to raise me as her own daughter. I was all she had left of her eldest daughter, who died of tuberculosis. The discovery was complex, and I am still putting the pieces of the puzzle of my life together, but I hold nothing against her. My grandmother wanted to protect me and showered me with warmth, love, and trust. I decided that the mission of my life is to repay her the favor, and fulfill her life's wish – to meet my sisters, her [other] two granddaughters."
In 2015, Asras flew to Ethiopia and met her father and sisters in a remote village. Her sisters later traveled to the transit camp in Gondar with plans and hopes to immigrate to Israel.
"They sold their property in the village and rented an apartment near the [Gondar] synagogue. The children were supposed to take part in the Jewish Agency's summer camp. We speak with them daily, but last week the connection was completely cut off because of damage to the infrastructure. The last time we spoke they said there were shots outside, people dying in the street, and everyone hiding inside."
Over the years, Asras and her family invested tremendous effort and financial resources to support the sister and get them to Israel.
"Years went by and nothing happened. So earlier this year I decided to take my mother to Ethiopia. She is 70 years old, and no longer in good health. She has glaucoma, and one of her eyes no longer functions. If we wait any longer - she may go blind and never see her grandchildren. We arranged a passport and were already looking at plane tickets when the war arrived in Gondar, bringing everything to a halt."
An estimated 9,000 people are waiting at the transit camp in Gondar to immigrate to Israel, as well as another 3,000 in the capital Addis Ababa. They are the descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity – some were and some did so willingly – in the second half of the 19th century, and as such, are not eligible to make aliyah under the Law of Return.
In the most recent aliyah campaign in Ethiopia, called Operation Tzur Yisrael, about 5,000 people were brought to Israel – those who met the criteria set forth by the Israeli government, such as having arrived at a transit camp before 2010.
At a Knesset committee hearing last June, a representative of the Population Registry said that 1,200 more people in Ethiopia fit the criteria and are eligible to immigrate to Israel, with only budgetary ambiguity holding them back from aliyah. Many more remain in limbo because they don't fit the criteria, such as Asras' sisters, who arrived in the transit camp after 2010.
Last Sunday, thousands of members of Israel's Ethiopian community demonstrated in Jerusalem, holding pictures of their family members trapped in the war-torn country.
"Gondar is no different than Ukraine," they chanted, accusing the government of welcoming Ukrainian refugees with open hands, while shunning Jews, or those of Jewish descent, in Ethiopia.
Asras too attended the protests while holding the photos of her sisters. A day later she also joined a meeting with Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer to discuss the matter – all the while trying to complete a Ben-Gurion University of the Negev leadership program.
Thirty-five excelling students take part in the annual program, with Asras having joined after completing her civil engineering degree – accomplishments she achieved, like everything else in life, with determination, humility, and perseverance.
Asras has always helped her community and Israel in general, having spent a year after high school working as a mentor for young girls and later enlisting in the IDF and serving in a combat unit for five years.
And even as life gets busy with studies and work, she continues to serve in reserve duty, and although she doesn't like to talk about it, Asras was the first female Ethiopian combat officer in the IDF.
Compassion for strangers, but not brethren
Asras became even more concerned in recent weeks after clashes in Gondar between regional forces and the military intensified, which is why she felt she could no longer keep quiet.
"All previous government decisions said there needed to be proof of Jewish lineage. My sisters have that. Their grandmother immigrated [to Israel], as did their great-grandmother. But because they are orphans and their mother died back in Ethiopia, they don't meet the criteria. It's all bureaucracy. They talk about numbers and lists, and it infuriates me. We are not sheep, we are human beings. They should examine each case individually. This is not about people who have no connection to Judaism. There is no question that my sisters are my sisters – we have the same father and mother. Why are they not allowed to immigrate like the rest of our family? Why tear families apart?
"I can't stand this inhumane treatment of the Ethiopian community, especially now, when it is trapped in the epicenter of the fighting. Israel is the first to send rescue forces to disaster areas and provide aid, even to non-Jews – be it the earthquake in Turkey or anywhere else – and it's great! I'm proud of it. But Ethiopia is a disaster-stricken area too! And we are not talking about foreigners, these are people who have family in Israel, brothers, uncles, grandmothers. If they immigrated, they would become a part of this nation. Why are they being turned away? And I say this after meeting with the aliyah and integration minister who looked us in the eye and said he had no intention of taking quick measures to save the community. I could not believe it.
"Israel is so proud to have received 30,000 immigrants from Ukraine in 2022. On top of that, another 15,000 refugees who are not eligible for aliyah entered Israel. So why not do the same for the Ethiopian Jewish community? How can you show compassion to foreigners, but not your brethren? We begged that the state would at least help move them from Gondar to a safer place inside Ethiopia, but the minister said that the state of Israel cannot accept responsibility for this.
"The state accepted responsibility and rescued only 204 people this week, most of them Israelis and several dozen of people eligible to make aliyah. But what about the rest?"
Asras is referring to the recent secret mission during which over 200 Israelis and Ethiopian Jews were rescued from war-torn northern Ethiopia – in a rescue mission by Magnus International Search and Rescue and PassportCard in coordination with local officials, Israeli diplomats in Addis Ababa, and the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
She continued, "I'm an Israeli through and through. I am a part of this nation and I help build it. I work at an infrastructure company that builds the country and renovates old infrastructure. And I've always felt like doing more, but this week it suddenly changed. I listened to my friends share their dreams, people who want to do good, and I said to myself that I too want to have such dreams, but I can't yet because I have something to take care of, it's like a cloud hovering above me.
"How can I go on with my life as if nothing happened, when I have sisters whose lives are in danger? On a daily basis, I don't feel discriminated against, but why do my friends not have this problem and I do? I understand that this is my life's purpose. My personal story certainly has a solution, but the whole community also needs to find a solution, and unfortunately, the state has been dragging its feet for years."
A diminished sense of belonging
"I constantly think of where my sisters are versus where I am," Asras continued. "One of them is 32 and the other is 35. Had they been allowed to immigrate ten years ago, they would have integrated and helped build this country. But now it would be much more difficult. In the end, all the Jews who immigrated from Ethiopia are Zionists, serve in the military, and integrate into the workforce. They don't come to take advantage of the country. They see this country as their home, for which they will fight."
According to Asras, she has to find not only external adversaries but those at home as well.
"I didn't know my mother, and my sisters didn't know her either. We were little when she passed away. We don't even know what she looked like, because there's no picture left of her. I never got to meet my mother and now I won't get to see my sisters either. Everyone is looking at me, asking me to do something. I try to meet with whoever I can, I went to a discussion in the Knesset, but nobody listens. They simply don't see you. I am not giving up, but I am afraid of one day receiving a dreaded phone call.
"It really affects your sense of belonging. This feeling that you are not Jewish enough, that you are in it for the money. Israel has given me a lot and I want and am giving back. But right now I feel like there's no one to turn to, no one to talk to. I love Israel and I love my sisters but I'm having a hard time reconciling the two."
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Israel Hayom reached out to the Aliyah and Integration Ministry for comment, to which it replied, "All those eligible [to make aliyah] under the Law of Return and Israeli citizens who were in Gondar were successfully rescued in a complex operation, and any further claims with regard to eligibility under the Law of Return will be examined and treated seriously, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency and the Population and Immigration Authority."
The office added that during the meeting with representatives of the Ethiopian community, Ofir stressed that the matter was being examined thoroughly and would be dealt with in an orderly manner.
It also appointed Brig. Gen. (res.) Harel Kanfo to reexamine Israel's policies regarding further immigration from Ethiopia and present his conclusions to the aliyah and integration minister.
