Written: November 1990
Published: November 9 and 11, 1990
Source: The Jerusalem Post, November 9, 1990 and The Jerusalem Post, November 11, 1990
Digitalisation: Princeton University Library
Proof-reading: Vishnu Bachani
HTML: Vishnu Bachani
QUESTION – What kind of relationship would you like with Israel?
ANSWER – There have been longstanding relations between Ethiopia and Israel. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were interrupted for 17 years—not as a result of any problem that arose between Ethiopia and Israel.
The source of the problems between our two countries always springs from a third country, from third forces. The chronic problem between Israel and the Arab nations has been an unfortunate element which has contributed to this.
At present, the situation has changed. One important change is the African countries' decision to restore their diplomatic relations with Israel. Personally, I see no reason why we should inhibit African countries from so doing. The other positive development was the effect of glasnost and perestroika, this has changed the attitude of the socialist countries themselves to Israel.
Having said that, I can't say that there are no problems. [Restored relations] have made the ant--Israel forces even more vociferous against us. Though Israel has restored its relations with many African countries, and maintains traditional links with European countries, that Ethiopia has restored relations with Israel is regarded as unprecedented and has put us under undue pressure from these forces.
These forces define this relationship with Israel as very dangerous and one that portends great danger for the Arab countries. Since the restoration of relations with Israel this has been evidenced by their clear support for our enemies—particularly by Iraq and Libya.
Q – Did Israel make a commitment to stand by you and help you if there was such a negative response?
A – Throughout the years when diplomatic relations between the two countries were broken, links were maintained between Ethiopia and Israel, and pressure was brought to bear by Israel for the restoration of ties.
Our response was that the problem did not lie between our two countries—there was no question that we wanted each other. But there were problems that must be taken into account. The Arab factor, in particular. The response of Israel was that the hostility of the Arab countries would always be there, against Ethiopia and Israel, regardless of whether we had diplomatic ties, and that this common factor, which was hostile to both of us, would be tackled in common by Israel and Ethiopia. This was the signal that was consistently given to us by Israel.
Q – Has Israel failed to respond adequately?
A – Not only has Israel failed to help, but we wonder whether Israel has a clear concept of the problem we are facing.
Q – What kind of relationship between Ethiopia and Israel do you want?
A – It is quite clear that if we want to live peacefully in the region, we have to work together with our friends, and align ourselves against our common enemies. This is not my personal vision, this is something that everybody in Ethiopia expects to happen—the party, the government, the people—everybody wants to see this alliance.
Wild allegations are already circulating about the restored relations between Ethiopia and Israel. Some Arab countries allege that the Israeli army is already in Ethiopia fighting alongside the Ethiopian army, that a host of Israeli engineers is already on Ethiopian soil, to construct a huge dam on the Blue Nile and stop the Nile from flowing into Egypt and Sudan and so on.
There isn't a single Israeli soldier in Ethiopia; in fact, [the Israeli] embassy does not even have a military attaché.
If we were the recipients of all that the Arabs imagine, we would not mind, they could say what they want. But since we do not stand to benefit, why should we suffer? We wonder whether the Israeli leadership is really sensitive to our situation.
Q – Many people see the Gulf crisis as the first test of a new world order. What do you feel the stakes are in the crisis?
A – It appears quite clear that Iraq, obsessed with its idea of national renaissance, has entirely overlooked the realities in neighboring countries and in the whole world.
If we analyze the policy and path of pursued by the Ba'th party, it clearly underlines three important aspects—Arab nationalism, religion, and expansionism. They are drawing a map, an Arab world map. This new Arab world includes some parts of Africa, and parts of Ethiopia. Israel does not figure in this map. It has been the professed objective of the Ba'th party to turn this map into reality.
Of the leaders that have emerged in that part of the world, Saddam Hussein is clearly characterized by undue adventurism and ambition. Iraq is one of the countries—perhaps the country—that is responsible for all the problems we have in terms of national unity. The truth is that we have been fighting a war or a proxy war here for the past 30 years, and Iraq has the entire time been present on the side of our enemies.
It does not appear to us that the objectives of the Iraqi invasion would be limited to Kuwait. It is quite clear that it has plans to invade countries beyond that. As a matter of fact, Kuwait may be taken as a stepping stone in this adventurist campaign. The whole objective of course, is to make the Arab dream, the Arab map, a reality.
If Iraqi expansionism is not checked, the situation will further deteriorate. The objective in checking Iraqi expansionism is not only forcing Iraq to disgorge Kuwait. The lasting solution lies in forcing Iraq to abandon its expansionist and adventurist plan regarding its neighbors and the world.
Q – Has the Gulf crisis affected your battle against the rebel forces within Ethiopia?
A – The present crisis may be said to have a beneficial effect for Ethiopia because Iraq has been the traditional supplier of arms, or the mainstay of the supply for the insurgents. Now, with the UN embargo, they are not in a position to supply arms generously to the insurgents. But that is not the question. In the long run, the situation with Iraq must be checked.
Q – Will the embargo on Iraq help bring the rebel forces to the negotiating table?
A – Yes, this can be helpful.
Q – What will it take to bring peace?
A – [The rebels] are nothing but mercenaries. What must be realized is that Egypt, Sudan and some of the countries of East Africa are entirely dependent on Ethiopia for their water. And they know very well that one day, when this country sets itself to the task of developing its economy, it will harness this water. Eighty-four percent of the water resources of our neighboring countries comes from Ethiopia. They owe their life to Ethiopia. Their agriculture, their industry, their energy comes from the water of Ethiopia.
So they see to it that Ethiopia does not emerge as a strong country: money, resources, and pumped into perpetually debilitating Ethiopia. As long as we remain in the world, hydropolitics will stay a constant factor. As therefore, of necessity, war will remain a constant factor.
Our enemies in the past have conducted over 100 invasions of Ethiopia in efforts to control our resources—the rivers of Ethiopia. They have failed. Now they have introduced a proxy war. These bandits are rich. A bandit chief, I'm sure, lives a much better life than I do, because they are all on an Arab payroll.
And besides the permanent issue of hydropolitics and the Arab drive and desire to control resources, there is also the constant factor of the Islamization and Arabization of Africa. The one country which has effectively blocked this for centuries is Ethiopia, and so they are very angry about this.
They would like to see Ethiopia cleared out of the way of the Arab sweep. And the other thing is that the Arabs have openly said that the Red Sea is an Arab lake, and Ethiopia has over 1,000 nautical miles of Red Sea coast.
In order to realize this objective it is in their interest to create, on Ethiopia's littoral, an Arab state, which will let them realize their objective of making the Red Sea an Arab lake.
The idea is to keep up the military pressure on Ethiopia. It's not only that. The Arabs have considerable leverage on world financial institutions. For example, when we apply for credit to build a minor dam for one of our rivers, they have the force to stop that project by lobbying at the financial institution, and carrying with them the Europeans and the Americans.
We will surely overcome [these problems] at the end of the day, not because of the amount of arms, or money which is at our disposal but because of the awareness of our people. And with this we will overcome the situation, as Israel did.
Incidentally, without trying to embarrass you, I have great respect for what Israel has achieved in forcing the enemy to recognize its existence. I know what it takes for a tiny country such as Israel, entirely surrounded, to force the enemy to accept the reality of the existence of Israel. We have great respect and admiration for what you have achieved. And our wish is incidentally, to benefit from this solid experience that you have accumulated in the course of decades of defending yourself. That is exactly what I mean by cooperation between our two countries, because this is, so to speak, a virgin land, a promised land, which we can develop by our cooperation.
We have not totally neglected the development of our economy. We have identified our weak and strong points. It is exactly because we have completed this phase of identification and were about to move into the stage of implementation that the heavy enemy pressure came. It was coordinated and synchronized. The Soviet Union and the socialist countries are not in Ethiopia anymore. The Western world is not providing Ethiopia with assistance. Ethiopia is entirely alone. This was the golden opportunity to strike.
Q – Is Ethiopia moving away from Marxism and toward more Western economic and political systems?
A – We were convinced that the introduction of socialism would bring about rapid development in the country, and this would force all nationalities to work together. We were convinced that religious and ethnic aspirations would no longer be the overriding concern. The measure we took at the time—introducing socialism—has helped our country hold together, it has helped avert the danger of disintegration.
Had we not taken that step, the situation in Ethiopia would have been quite different. Because at the time we did not have the military resources to ward off the combined attack on Ethiopia of Somalia, Sudan, and the secessionist forces.
But now of course, situations have developed quite differently. In the first place, the Cold War is coming to an end, the superpowers have found ways and means to bridge their traditional differences. And the other important development is what has happened within the socialist countries. We had to take these dramatic developments into account.
It was on the basis of the assessment we have made of these developments that we have introduced a mixed economy in our country and restructured our party into a non-ideological party. This is not just empty rhetoric. We have taken already concrete steps.
In fact, I could say that the measures we have taken are more far-reaching than any country has taken. And yet it is unfortunate to note that in spite of our widespread liberalizations, in spite of the effort we have taken to come closer to the world than we ever have in the past, the response [from the West] has not been satisfactory.
Q – Can you give an example of this liberalization?
A – In our country, the economy is predominately private. The state and cooperative sectors have been, throughout the revolutionary period, of insignificant percentage in comparison with the private sector. But there was one element that was lacking. There was no legal protection for the private sector, which endangered its standing. So now a whole array of legal protection and benefits have been given to the private sector… For example, the credit facilities, financial assistance and technical assistance to the private sector and above all tax incentives and also generous investment laws.
Another important landmark in our liberalization is what we have done in improving our international image. There is an unfortunate misperception of developments tn Ethiopia, projected by our enemies in the Western countries, that we were against the West. This was not the case. Particularly with the United States, we have left no stone unturned to restore our traditional link with the United States. In a certain way, we had all these enemies arrayed against us because of the United States itself, which was maintaining a base and a communications center in our country.
Q – One of the reasons frequently cited by the U.S. for distancing itself from Ethiopia is Ethiopia's record on human rights.
A – There has been some allegation of human rights abuse in our country. There is some truth to that, I must frankly confess, but not to the extent that it is perceived in the United States.
We are not interested in going against the interest of the people. We were fighting against forces that are bent on fragmenting the country. We were fighting to maintain the security of this country and its very existence. And we are not fighting to achieve expansionist objectives. In the process, some human rights abuse is bound to take place. But one has to be very careful in defining what human rights abuse is.
When the revolution triumphed in our country, disgruntled elements went to neighboring countries and returned with arms to invade the country and to terrorize the ordinary civilian population. The steps I have taken to protect the people against these marauders [and] these terrorists are wrongly described as human rights abuse. The excess that is alleged to have taken place is not to the extent of the excesses of the industrial revolution in Europe or the civil war in America or in many places in Europe today. For example, our prisons are not teeming with prisoners as in any European country.
Q – Do you foresee a multiparty system for Ethiopia sometime in the future?
A – Sure, we want to introduce a multiparty system, as reflecting the will of the people of Ethiopia. We are ready for a multiparty system. But we don't want the parties to be set up on lines of ethnic or religious interests, but on broadly-based issues of national interest.
Q – How can this be encouraged?
A – In the first place, the people have not yet requested it. They did not demand the setting up of a multiparty system in our country. There is no question that the idea of a multiparty system is in the limelight now. If the people think that such a system is in their interest, and they endorse it in a referendum, naturally, we will approve it.
Q – As a young man you went to the U.S. for military training.
A – That was a long time ago, and the America of those days was quite different from contemporary America. It was a time when blacks and Jews were discriminated against in America. I well remember a bus ride I had from Chicago to Davenport where the bus driver said, "There is a back seat for the blacks and the Jews." Still, in spite of this, I can say that America is a great society. I learned so much from Americans. I don't at all have a pathologically negative attitude towards America or Americans.
Q – Were you influenced by the radical ideas of the '60s in America?
A – Of course I was. And in the course of expressing my feelings, I must have antagonized some people.
Q – Is there famine now in Ethiopia?
A – Yes, there is still drought and famine in Ethiopia. By African standards this is a huge country—1.2 million square kilometers, and it is generally fertile country, endowed with huge water sources. In the past, it has been an exporter of food. It is only recently that this drought situation became cyclical and persistent, even chronic, exclusively in the northern part of our country. This is the only part of our country burdened with excess population and which uses primitive agricultural techniques. This has led to widespread denudation of our country and it has become a devastated area. This situation could have been remedied very easily if we had peace, by relocating people, by exporting food from other areas of the country to that area and rehabilitating this denuded and eroded area.
Q – Are the secessionist forces now allowing relief supplies to be brought into drought areas?
A – No, they do not allow it. We started relocating people elsewhere, to suitable areas of the country. In one scheme, we relocated some half-million people. But this was viewed by the world as a human rights violation, there was an uproar and we were forced to abandon it.
What the secessionists and the bandits do is force the hungry people into joining their ranks. Famine helps the secessionists because it creates a social base from which to recruit.
Q – What is your ambition for Ethiopia?
A – Forty percent of our budget goes towards the preservation of national unity. You can figure out what that means. We could have built two huge industrial plants annually, or railways and many hospitals with this money. So what I would like to see is peace, and the preservation of national unity. If we had peace, we could divert this money and transform this country, dramatically and in a brief period.
QUESTION – Why is the family reunification of Ethiopian Jews taking so long?
ANSWER – I think we have to have some kind of [background]. There has been some unnecessary confusion created about this concept of family reunification.
Before the introduction of Christianity, the beliefs of people in Ethiopia and also southern Arabia were anchored in the Tora. Then Christianity and Islam became the dominant faiths in Ethiopia and Judaism was marginalized.
Later on, the question of the Jews in Ethiopia was raised again, because someone had the idea that the Jews in Ethiopia were actually the children of a lost son of Israel. Until very recently, no Israeli experts and no Ethiopian experts accepted the Falashas[1] as being Jews. The belief was that the Falashas were the remnants of the pre-Christian era in Ethiopia, that these were ethnic Ethiopians who had once adopted Judaism, so they were not ethnically Jews. If we subscribe to this concept, it means that the entire Northern Ethiopia were once Jews.
One common element among Ethiopians is the positive attitude and affection that Ethiopians have for Israel. All the Christians in our country are absolutely sympathetic to Judaism and Israel, and in fact… say the two communities have the same God—the God of Israel, Yisrael Amlak[1] in Amharic.
So as the result of research done by some individual, suddenly one has come to believe that the Falashas are ethnically Jews. And the Jewish community accepted them and there was the movement to relocate the Falashas back to Israel.
When we first came to power, this problem was discussed at a high level. We said we really do not care if Israel considers the Falashas as ethnic Jews. And we said then that Ethiopians are free to settle where they want—after all, there are 80,000 Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia and tens of thousands in Western countries. As a matter of fact, this could strengthen or cement relations between Ethiopia and Israel.
So we gave our Israeli brothers a signal. They requested whether they could come over and pay the Falashas a visit, and we told them, yes, they could. They wanted to be allowed to provide some assistance in setting up some economic and cultural facilities in Falasha country, well, we told them yes, you could. They came, and at that time they inculcated in the mind of the Falashas that they were in fact ethnic Jews. And this led to a serious problem between the Falashas and the local government. We asked them to please refrain from such acts.
Even then, we did not slam the door against the idea of immigration for these people who believed that they were Jews; they are free to do so. In fact, we facilitated their relocation to Israel, without making much noise, on the basis of contacts and cooperation between our security service and its Israeli counterparts. And it was actually we who started this idea. Many Falashas made it to Israel.
In the meantime, fighting in the north assumed very threatening proportions, and this was coupled with a serious drought, and the bandits hired many people from the border communities to go to Sudan under the pretext that there were relief goods waiting for them in Sudan. The whole objective of the bandits was to create a social base in the Sudan from which to recruit fighters. And then as a result of the collusion of the Israeli, Sudanese and American secret services, the notorious Operation Moses was mounted to relocate the Falashas forcefully.
It was the very first time that the Ethiopian people were angry at the Israelis. Why on earth would Israel, in collusion with some Arab country, mount this operation and smuggle Ethiopians out of their country to Israel. In particular, we were angry about the timing, when we were grappling against the Arab forces. But we said that we should play it cool, and not harbor feelings about it, because neither Ethiopia nor Israel would stand to benefit from the situation. We decided to let bygones be bygones.
So you see, the question of family reunification is intimately linked with Operation Moses. Who was the first to have wrenched people away from their families? It was Operation Moses. The American Jews say "We have to encourage Ethiopian Jews to go to Israel, as we are encouraging Jews from the Soviet Union and other parts of the world." Well, whether these people are Jews or not is an entirely different question.
So in order not to whip up the thing, to make it convenient raw material for the Arab media, we thought that we should play it cool, proceed very calmly. It was we who suggested that we should give the whole thing the cover of family reunification. So it was no accord or agreement, but there was an understanding and consensus between us and Israel on this issue.
Then we required that the Israeli officials give us a list of the prospective immigrants to Israel. And we also worked out the formality by which the exit of these people could be facilitated both by our security people and their Israeli counterparts. It was working quite smoothly, an unprecedented number of Falashas were going to Israel without any difficulty.
In the meantime, American Jews came to Ethiopia and changed this concept of family reunification. They came here with money, and they hired people of dubious standing in our country who would go to Falasha country and recruit people who would like to go to Israel without going into the real specifics And in the process they recruited people who were both Falashas and non-Falashas.
This led to the huge influx of people from the north to Addis Ababa. Many of them were peasants who simply abandoned their work and abandoned their family; there were people who were given money to come over here. This has led to a strained situation here. At last, we had to send people to Israel to find out exactly what the Israelis want. If they really want to have Falashas or Ethiopians, non-Falashas—what exactly did they want to have in their country in terms of immigrants?
The Israeli officials told us that this was not of their making, it was the American Jews who created this confusion. What we decided was to urge the American Jews not to interfere. Through our discussions on several occasions, a mechanism has been set up to facilitate the migration. So now a process has been set up to implement the program. What we are doing in concrete terms is the screening of the people who are considered as Falashas, to determine who is Falasha, and which of these would like to go to Israel, and which to some other country.
Q – The Ethiopian government itself is doing that?
A – We have set up a national screening committee, and when Mr. Lubrani [Uri Lubrani[2], the prime minister's special emissary to Ethiopia] came here, we extensively exchanged views on this.
There is one question that remains unanswered: Whether the Israelis want exclusively Falasha or Ethiopians as such? We asked this; no clear answer has yet been forthcoming.
…We are not clear as to what the American Jews want, what their interest is in this. It is tragic to note that in spite of the good attitude and the positive steps we have taken to facilitate the migration of the Falashas, we have become the target of scathing criticism of the American Jewish media and the Israeli media.
The other important question is what is the situation of the Falashas in Israel now as compared to the Jews who came from the Soviet Union and from other European countries? We note that there are Falashas who came from Ethiopia years ago; still they find themselves in camps… and are unemployed. And now we are swelling that number. We warn you that this will bring a great social upheaval to Israel. This could be, in the long run, a serious problem for Israeli society, and the repercussion might be that it could destroy the positive attitude that Ethiopians traditionally have had towards Israel.
Q – But you know how important family is for Ethiopians. Right now in Israel, every family is split. Israel feels that it would be easier to absorb 5,000 complete families than to deal with families that are broken.
A – The Israelis do not seem to have a clear concept of which members of the family they want. So far, they have given us forms for only 300 people. Those 300 people are already in Israel, and they don't have another list. But still, there is this unchecked uproar.
As far as we are concerned, if they want people, we are ready, even outside the parameters of family reunification, but under its umbrella, to encourage as many people as want to go to Israel. But I am afraid we do not have a counterpart in Israel to work with us towards this ideal.
Q – Wasn't progress made during meetings with the Lubrani delegation?
A – The response to that is still pending. There is no ambassador here at present in the Israeli Embassy. When we were in the wilderness, before we renewed relations with Israel, there was pressure from Israel, "Why don't we set up an embassy?"
We were almost pestered by telephone calls—sometimes, when I was visiting foreign countries, we would receive telephone calls from the Israelis. So after 18 years we did restore diplomatic relations. We have an embassy in Tel Aviv… but there is no Israeli [ambassador] here in Addis.
We are at our wit's end. I am afraid that the Israelis we are dealing with now are not the same as the Israelis we dealt with in the past. In those days, together, we achieved so many things. So I feel there is some problem, particularly with your foreign office. We doubt if there is a full comprehension among the Israelis of the positive attitude which Ethiopia has towards Israel, of its readiness to work with Israel. We are 52 million Ethiopians, and all of us are ready to work together with Israel. There is a psychological preparedness on the part of the Ethiopian people to stand side by side with Israel. The fact that some 15,000 Falashas leave for Israel does not affect the demographics of Ethiopia; we do not have a population shortage. So in this we see an unnecessary and artificial problem.
Q – Was the stoppage of immigration caused by a specific demand which Israel failed to meet?
A – There is an ugly allegation made by the American media that Ethiopia has held up the Falashas from going to Israel because Israel has not been forthcoming with arms, and is holding them hostage. This is utterly absurd. My government has seen to it that as many Falashas that wanted to go to Israel could go, even in those days when we did not have diplomatic relations.
The Israeli-Ethiopian cooperation must be viewed not only within the parameters of this single issue. In this regard, we exchanged a series of views with Israel on the governmental level to bring about economic cooperation and trade links, and cooperation in the field of science and technology, and to bring about cooperation on our common security, and to identify exactly items or areas Israel wants from Ethiopia and what Israel can send to Ethiopia in exchange.
Q – Do you understand that our whole nation is based on the return of the Jews to Zion?
A – I don't know if you know what the Ethiopian people have done, what they have contributed towards the realization of the millennial aspiration of the Jewish people, the restoration of the State of Israel. You probably know that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir[3] was in Ethiopia as a prisoner. So it was our people who facilitated his escape from the northern part of our country, from Eritrea, which was under British rule at the time. And there are many who benefited from this assistance which Ethiopia provided.
This is a time when the Arabs, encouraged by the oil bonanza, are trying to destabilize Ethiopia—and if possible also Israel, although they know very well that Israel is strong and will not allow that to happen.
We feel that this is the time for the two countries to join hands, and perhaps also for the Israeli scientific and technological know-how and finance to come here, and if that is not forthcoming from Israel, perhaps from Jewish sources—for Jewish know-how and capital to come here and develop this country together for our common interest.
It is sad to note that the West provided arms to Iraq, which is now challenging it. It is not in the interest of Israel to see Ethiopia fall or break up. This is a time when the Islamic world is being swept by fundamentalism, which is the ultimate danger. And now there is the new danger emerging from the Gulf Crisis. Which of the countries on the Red Sea would take the brunt of this? What the Israelis should realize is that we are not requesting any favors from Israel. What we are doing is urging Israel to wake up.
[1] ፈላሻ in Amharic.
[2] እስራኤል አምላክ in Amharic.
[3] אורי לוברני in Hebrew.
[4] יצחק שמיר in Hebrew.
[5] Given that the original scan is available, minor typos have been corrected without using [sic].