Violence and Identity: Zegeye's Impossible Return
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Violence and Identity:Zegeye's Impossible Return
A Brief Overview
The book is organized into seven chapters. Chapter one follows the "the quest for Beta-Israel identity in Ethiopia". It examines the origin of the identity of the Beta-Israel from all possible accounts and debates the ancient roots of the Beta-Israel based on oral history. However, due to the lack of written sources before the 4th century, none of these accounts can provide conclusive and compelling evidence to establish with absolute certainty when and how the Jewish presence in Ethiopia began. The author, therefore, concludes that even though the Beta-Israel cannot be considered as "a distinct, pure and authentic social group untouched to the multidimensional dynamics in Africa and Ethiopia", their strong religious commitment and struggle to defend their faith supports their claim for historical Jewishness in their own eyes. Thus, they deserve acceptance in Israeli identity, despite being isolated from mainstream Judaism. However, Zegeye's wider theoretical understanding of Beta-Israel identity concerns their constant struggle against isolation from the Christian rules of Ethiopia, which in turn reinforced their peculiarity and perseverance against all odds.
Chapter two continues the search for the identity of the Beta Israel by examining the history of Judaism in Ethiopia. His thorough survey of the interpenetration of Judaism and Ethiopian identity leads him to conclude that there is no other country today as highly influenced by Judaism as Ethiopia. Similarly, the identity of the Beta-Israel has undergone Ethiopianisation. Thus, one may say, Ethiopia was Judaized as Judaism was Ethiopianized. This chapter focused on reconstructing the Jewish identity of the Beta-Israel along with the ancient history of Ethiopia. In doing so, the author has unearthed a grotesque image of the extreme violence against the Beta-Israel that shaped the nature of their identity. Zegeye concludes that the Beta Israel have a legitimate claim to Jewishness owing to the endless persecution, violation and discrimination they faced.
Chapter three, the shortest of all the chapters, presents a watershed point in the history of the Beta-Israel: the relocation to Jerusalem, which involved the dramatic smuggling out and airlifting of tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia and Sudan. Four major operations were carried out from 1983 to 1991: Operation Brothers, Moses, Sheba and Solomon. The title of the chapter, "Back to Jerusalem", captures the age-old aspiration of the Beta-Israel to return to their imagined old religious home, as was the case with the wider [End Page 222] Jewish diaspora, an aspiration voiced in the prayer "We shall meet next year in Jerusalem". The author describes, the arrival of 14, 000 Ethiopian Jews at Ben Gurion airport during the Operation Solomon as "a defining and mythical moment" of union between Jewishness and Zionism despite multidimensional differences. This was a euphoric moment among both Secular and religious Jews. However, the cumulative effect of the three-failed exodus of the 19th century and the immediate stress, disorders and suffering on the body and mind of the Beta-Israel left an enduring legacy, a topic fully addressed in chapters four and five.
Chapter four analyzes the legal, religious and socio-cultural challenges faced by the Beta-Israel in the process of their absorption into Israeli society. Like the tribulations the Beta-Israel endured through centuries in Ethiopia, they faced in Israel a distressing situation of marginalization, discrimination and dehumanization. In all aspects of their identity, they were denigrated as backwards, inferior and unfit for the advanced Israeli way of life. Zegeye's account leaves the reader wondering how the Israeli state and society failed to have empathy for the pain and suffering the Beta-Israel endured to maintain their identity.
Chapter five addresses the Beta-Israel resistance to Israeli education. It mainly focuses on their perseverance to preserve their identity from being crushed and recreated in the Israeli mould, which resulted in their cultural and social ghettoization. In all measurements of education, skill and employment they faced a system of segregation...
