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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Address at the State Memorial Service Commemorating the Fallen from Ethiopia /Translation |
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| 19/05/2004 |
Good day,
Mr. President and Mrs. Katzav,
Mayor of Jerusalem,
Minister Tzipi Livni - through whose efforts this ceremony is taking place today, and construction will soon begin on a new monument on Mount Herzl,
Esteemed Kaissim,
Members of the Ethiopian Community,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today on Jerusalem Day, for the first time at an official ceremony, we honor the memory of the thousands of fallen Ethiopian Jews who died on the desert paths trying to reach "the Land of Jerusalem".
Jerusalem has always been the eternal capital of the Jewish people, a living and undisputed symbol of the unity of the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora, the focus of our yearnings and the embodiment of our dreams in every exile.
But, while Jews from other countries continued, over generations, to maintain a living connection with the earthly Jerusalem - visiting and settling there the "Beita Israel" tribe of Ethiopian Jews remained detached in its geographical isolation. This detachment did not affect the spiritual connection of the Jews of Ethiopia to Jerusalem. It may even have strengthened it, and thus Jerusalem grew in their imaginations until the entire Land of Israel became "the Land of Jerusalem".
In 1862, this connection prompted thousands of this proud Jewish tribe, which maintained its Judaism in spite of persecution, to march toward Jerusalem. They sought to reach it by way of the Red Sea, and believed they would experience a miracle, similar to those who left Egypt. The end was tragic. Many of them died of starvation and disease while still in Ethiopia.
120 years later, in the early 1980s, when the rumor again spread through the villages of Gondar that people were "going to Jerusalem",this tragic memory did not prevent anyone from setting out. Young and old, thousands left their villages in the dead of night as part of the wave of refugees who fled Ethiopia during those years because of famine and political instability and turned to walk the desert paths in order to sneak over the border to Sudan. This was a difficult and harsh journey of hundreds of kilometers, which claimed a frightful number of victims. Almost 4,000 men, women and children lost their lives to hunger or disease, or at the hands of murderers or bandits who assaulted them en route, before they reached the object of their dreams the Land of Israel, Jerusalem.
There is not a single family of Ethiopian Jews in Israel that did not suffer the loss of beloved relatives en route to Israel. These heroes were not lost as unknown victims in the wilderness or in the camps of Sudan. Each and every one of them their names and their identities still lives today in the hearts of their acquaintances and relatives. And this is how we will all remember them. We will ensure that the heroic story of the immigrants from Ethiopia will be forever remembered in its appropriate place within the pantheon of stories of valor of the Jewish people.
Since Menachem Begin was Prime Minister of Israel, the State of Israel has viewed the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry and their immigration to Israel as a national mission. We have spared no effort. The Government of Israel, the Jewish Agency, the Mossad, the Air Force, the Navy and other units of the IDF used every possible avenue, overt and covert undertaking remarkable operations that will yet be spoken of in the future in order to realize the dream of Aliyah to Israel for our Jewish brethren from Ethiopia.
For me personally, this Aliyah was also the completion of a circle. As a young man, my imagination was captured by Dr. Yaakov Faitlovich's book, which was first published in Paris in 1905, describing his travels among the Jews of Ethiopia. Twenty years later, as a Colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, I went myself to pay a special visit with the Jews of Ethiopia in the mountains of Gondar. As Minister of Defense, I had the privilege of directing the effort to bring thousands of them to the Land of Israel. Of this, I am proud.
Today, on Jerusalem Day as we celebrate the city which was united, and will never be divided again we bow our heads and recall in our hearts, with sorrow and affection, the memories of the thousands of dreamers among the Jews of Ethiopia who did not merit to see the gates of this city, and who fell while gazing toward her.
May their memories be blessed.
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