East of Nakba (47)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

October, 2022

Part II. Ethnic cleanser

 

Chapter 47 Inner enemy of Jewish state (4)

 

The number of African Jewish immigrants was not so high. However, the number of Arabs emerged by the annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a result of the Six Day War was far beyond that of African Jewish. The Israeli government had to make a bold effort to attract Jews from all over the world. The Jewish farmers living in the Ukraine were chosen as a target.

 

Over a thousand years ago, some of the Diaspora Jews wandered around Eurasian continent and settled in Ukraine. They married Russians and forgot Hebrew. They became almost genuine Russian in their habits and rituals.

 

The Israeli government allowed people to emigrate if one of their grandparents had been Jewish descent. Some of grandparents had hardly to prove whether they were genuine Jews or not. But it was not a problem. If they claimed themselves to be Jewish, their children and grandchildren were automatically recognized as Jews.

U.S.S.R., the ruler of Ukraine, advocated egalitarian socialism. But the Ukrainian farmers were ill-treated. Jewish farmers had to live in more harsh condition. Israeli proposal was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them to evacuate from U.S.S.R.

 

When the U.S.S.R. collapsed after the Afghan War, The United States strongly supported Israel policy to immigrate Jewish farmers from Ukraine to Israel. In fact, many of them hoped to immigrate to the United States. But the United States was reluctant to accept agricultural workers. The United States had a hard time dealing with illegal immigrants from Mexico and did not want to accept immigrants other than those with medical, industrial and other high technical skills.

 

The flood of Jewish Ukrainian farmers was destined not to the United States but to Israel. More than one million rushed into Israel.

 

Israeli government utilized any means to emigrate foreign Jews from all over the world as much as possible. The headache of "Shy-Rock" was not solved, though. The official demographic statistics showed the fact that the growth of Palestinian Arab population had greatly outpaced that of Jews. Furthermore, even among Jews, there was a remarkable difference between Ashkenazim and non-Ashkenazim such as Ethiopian or Russian origins.

 

There was a fear that not only the Jews would become a minority among the Israeli inhabitants but also the Ashkenazim would become a minority among the Jews. The imminent problem was that the ratio between Arabs and Jews was shrinking year by year. Demographers warned that the ratio would reverse by the middle of the century.

 

(cont’d)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)

 

To previous chapters: http://ocininitiative.maeda1.jp/OcinNovelEnglish.html