NAZARETH, Israel

Ethiopian Jewish women

She approached a local health clinic serving the 55 Ethiopian families in Bnei Braq and was told by the clinic manager that they had been instructed to administer Depo Provera injections to the women of child-bearing age, though he refused to say who had issued the order.

Ms Mangoli, who interviewed the women, said: “They had not been told about alternative forms of contraception or about the side effects or given medical follow-ups.” The women complained of a wide range of side effects associated with the drug, including headaches, abdominal pain, fatigue, nausea, loss of libido and general burning sensations.

Depo Provera is also known to decrease bone density, especially among dark-skinned women, which can lead to osteoporosis in later life. Doctors are concerned that it is difficult or impossible to help women who experience severe side effects because the drug is in their system for months after it is injected.

The contraceptive’s reputation has also been tarnished by its association with South Africa, where the apartheid government had used it, often coercively, to limit the fertility of black women.

Traditionally, its main uses have been for women who are regarded as incapable of controlling their own reproduction or monitor other forms of birth control, and for women who suffer severe problems during menstruation.

Ms Eyal said she had been denied co-operation from government ministries, doctors and most of the health insurance companies while conducting her research.

Clalit, the largest health company, however, did provide figures showing that 57 per cent of its Depo Provera users were Ethiopian compared with a handful of women in other ethnic groups.

The health ministry was unavailable for comment.

When first questioned about Depo Provera in June 2008, the health minister of the time, Yaacov Ben Yezri, said the high number of Ethiopians in Israel using the drug reflected a “cultural preference” for injections among Ethiopians. In fact, according to figures of the World Health Organisation, three-quarters of women in Ethiopia using birth control take the oral pill.

“The answers we received from officials demonstrated overt racism,” Ms Eyal said. “They suggested that Ethiopian women should be treated not as individuals but as a collective group whose reproduction needs controlling.”

When Woman to Woman conducted an experiment by sending five non-Ethiopian women to doctors to ask for Depo Provera, all were told that it was prescribed only in highly unusual cases.

Ms Mangoli said it was extremely difficult to get immigrant Ethiopian families to speak out because they were afraid that their Jewishness was under suspicion and that they might be deported if they caused trouble.

However, women interviewed anonymously for the report stated that officials at absorption centres in Ethiopia advised them to take Depo Provera because there would be no funds to support their children if they got pregnant in Israel.

This policy appears to conflict with the stated goals of the country’s Demography Council, a group of experts charged with devising ways to persuade Jewish women to have more babies.

The council was established in response to what is widely seen in Israel as a “demographic war” with Palestinians, or the need to maintain a Jewish majority in the region despite high Palestinian birth rates. In a speech marking the council’s reconvening in 2002, the then social welfare minister, Shlomo Benizri, referred to “the beauty of the Jewish family that is blessed with many children”.

Yali Hashash, a researcher at Haifa University, said attempts to restrict Ethiopian women’s fertility echoed practices used against Jewish women who immigrated to Israel from such Arab countries as Iraq, Yemen and Morocco in the state’s early years, in the 1950s and 1960s.

Many, she said, had been encouraged to fit IUDs when the device was still experimental because Israel’s leading gynecologists regarded Arab Jews as “primitive” and incapable of acting “responsibly”.

Allegations of official racism towards Ethiopians gained prominence in 2006 when it was admitted that for many years all their blood donations had been discarded for fear that they might be contaminated with diseases.

There have also been regular reports of Ethiopian children being denied places in schools or being forced to attend separate classes.

In November a survey of employers in the main professions showed that 53 per cent preferred not to hire an Ethiopian.

Ruth Sinai, an Israeli social affairs reporter for Haaretz newspaper, wrote recently that the discrimination faced by the country’s 120,000 Ethiopians reflected in particular “doubts on the part of the country’s religious establishment about their Jewishness”.

Source - the national

Comments (9)

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hulgize said:

I is strange when some people think they are superior to others.

January 06, 2010

nesredin said:

I think if this problem of recism continues, Ethiopian jews must think of coming back to Ethiopia. Ethiopia always welcome her children. Come back brothers and sisters. Nesrdin from Mercato, Addis Ababa

January 06, 2010

Maqdalla said:

The White Jews are not true Jews. Ethiopian Jews should take control of Israeli affairs. There are more Jews in Ethiopia tha elsewhere in the world. Maybe more 20 million ethiopians in Ethiopia have Jews blood running in their veins. But those Ethiopians are christians and do not want to migrate to Israel. The ethiopian government should take such maltreatment of ethiopian Jews seriously and should try to solve the problem with the Israeli government. Ethiopian Jews should take more responsiblity in their affairs. There should be more ethiopian jews as doctors, leaders and religious leaders.

January 06, 2010

Ethiopian said:

We need to realize that Israel is the most racist nation on the planet earth from day one. They are the ones who taught the world to divide on racial lines. They have dictated how the rest of the world should think about them- through their ancient writings, art, politics, and now through Holywood. They created a religion to inflate their collective ego. They divided the world as Jew and Gentile and used Judeo Christianity to propel this teaching for them for the past 2000 years. We swallowed what they have prescribed for us for many centuries. What is the complain? As for our Ethiopians in that land, they should know that thoughtful Ethiopians love them. You have Enat Ager and Israel has proved to you that it is Bada!

January 06, 2010

Habesha said:

Maqdalla said: "There are more Jews in Ethiopia tha elsewhere in the world. Maybe more 20 million ethiopians in Ethiopia have Jews blood running in their veins. But those Ethiopians are christians and do not want to migrate to Israel." By those standards alone, there would be more than 50 million "Jews" worldwide. Having Jewish blood or origins does not a Jew make. Like you said, "those Ethiopians are christians." Not Jews, unless they revert. We all know about the problems with the falashmura in Israel, who are christians.

January 08, 2010

ethiopia said:

Identity crisis, learn from Eritreans, next the republic of Tigray!

January 08, 2010

DevorahLeah said:

Ethiopian, I am surprised at you. Your stereotypes about Jews and Israelis are complete nonsense, and have no basis in fact-- they only shows your own prejudice, sad to say. Jews do NOT control Hollywood, nor do they control art or politics, and it's bigoted to buy into old myths like that, which come largely from (forgive me for saying this) Christian missionaries who wanted to demonise Jews for refusing to become Christian. As for dictating how anybody thinks about us-- if that's the case, why have there been so many murders of Jews and persecutions of Jews over the centuries? And please don't say "oh they brought it on themselves" because history does not support that view. Truth is, we Jews did not divide anything into Jew and gentile-- that happened long before us. The Canaanites hated the Babylonians, the ancient Egyptians were rivals with other ethnic and religious groups, etc etc. Even in Ethiopia, Christians and Muslims and Jews have not always gotten along, and deep in your heart, you know that. Does Israel have problems? Yes. But so does every country. Does Israel have racists? Yes, but again, sadly, so does every country. If we can all avoid stereotyping each other and work on constructive solutions, that will be a much better strategy for eliminating the poisons of bigotry and prejudice.

January 09, 2010

violet said:

It is ashame what the Ethiopians are going through.I have been supporting imigration to Isarel but if what I am reading is correct I will stop my contribution.It is so sad to deprive these women of their rights to have children and to be force to take birth control which has serious effects.This brings to mine Egypt with Moses.

February 08, 2010

Habtamu(yubdo) said:

I read the news.Actually this research might have been done by some people who may not having detail knowledge and has to be justified by the officials of the two government to alliviate the problem on time. unless such things bring unwanted consequences to nations of the world.I also bleive that no one nation is superior to the other i.e.everybody is equal.And say no to racism and make the officials to understand such stoopid myth in the 21st century.But peace is greater than all things!

July 29, 2010

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