A Falash Mura man kisses the ground as the flight from Ethiopia lands in Israel in 2008. Photo: Michal Fattal/Flash90/TimesofIsrael
Feasibility studies have been completed in Ethiopia and more than 20 Israeli investors plan to start new agricultural companies there with local partners as early as 2016, according to EthiopianNewsAgency, AllAfrica reports.
There’s a growing demand among Israeli investors to do business in Ethiopia, according to Belaynesh Zevadia, Israel’s Ambassador to Ethiopia.
Israel is home to at least 120,000 people of Ethiopian descent including nearly 81,000 born in Ethiopia. Ethiopian Jews lived for centuries in North and North-Western Ethiopia in more than 500 small villages. Israel decided in 1977 that the Israeli Law of Return applied to the Beta Israel — observant Ethiopian Jews. The Israeli and U.S. governments mounted operations to transport Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
Zevadia is the first Jewish Ethiopian-born Israeli to become an Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia. She was appointed in 2012.
Ethiopia and Israel re-established diplomatic relations in 1992. Israel has been one of Ethiopia’s most reliable suppliers of military assistance, supporting different Ethiopian governments during the Eritrean War of Independence.
Israeli businessman Zeev Oselka recently led a 20-person Israeli delegation to Ethiopia for the fourth time, ENA reported.
The investors chose agriculture because Ethiopia has lots of suitable land and Israel has the latest technology to share, the report said.
Eli Herscovitz, one of the Israeli investors, said infrastructure development underway in Ethiopia is one of the attractions.
Israeli business leaders who attended an Ethio-Israel Agritech Forum told ENA in September that they plan to introduce Israeli agricultural technology to Ethiopia.
Ethiopia needs modern technology to increase the quality of its poultry exports to the world market, said Lanadu Chen, who owns poultry farms in Israel. Chen is CEO of Hili Metals Works Company.
Ethiopia can benefit from Israel’s agricultural experience in getting enormous yield from small plots of land, said David Dror, owner of Israeli dairy company Qualified Gene.
Agriculture Minister Wondirad Mandefro agrees that Ethiopia’s agricultural productivity is hampered by poor technology and lack of capital.
The Ethiopian government wants to modernize farming practices and increase productivity, Mandefro said. Israeli agricultural technology could have a significant impact on the growth of Ethiopia’s agricultural sector, he said.
By 1991 very few observant Ethiopian Jews were left in Ethiopia, but thousands of Falash Mura–or Ethiopians of Jewish decent who had converted to Christianity to escape persecution–remained, UPI reported in 2013.
These continued arriving in Israel. Ethiopian migration to Israel ended in 2013, NPR reported.
Ethiopian Israelis face major social and economic challenges, according to UPI. Almost half of Ethiopian-Israeli women work as unskilled labor compared to insignificant percentages in the general population. All Israeli ethnic groups including Muslim Arab employers are least likely to hire Ethiopians, according to a survey by the Israeli Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry.
Adisu Massala, the first Ethiopian-born member of Israel’s Knesset, left Israel after he failed to retain his seat, and has been living in Ethiopia, TimesofIsrael reported. He works as a lobbyist of sorts, using his connections in both countries to promote the interests of Israeli companies doing business in Ethiopia.
Massala said he was dismayed when protests broke out earlier this year in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Sixty people were injured when members of the Ethiopian-Israeli community protested years of institutional racism and discrimination and police brutality, TimesofIsrael reported.
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