At some point during the war, estimates were that around 200,00 Israelis became evacuees from either the southern or northern border.
The lives of these evacuees have been and continue to be difficult, but for some in the Ethiopian sector, it has been ever harder.
To help Ethiopian evacuees overcome financial, cultural, and language obstacles to surviving during the evacuation and life and work-disrupting war-period, the Tebeka Association has recently expanded its activities.
Prior to the war, Tebeka’s free legal aid and litigation department for Ethiopian-Israelis throughout the country responded on a yearly basis to more than a thousand legal queries on time-sensitive matters of employment, education, housing, health and law enforcement and other issues.
Now, it is also trying to collect funds to help the Ethiopian evacuee sector bridge this extra difficult time until the country, and their lives return to something closer to resembling “normal.”
The Jerusalem Post spoke to two Ethiopian evacuees who have been helped by Tebeka to better understand the challenges and the value of Tebeka’s assistance.
“M” (both interviewees requested anonymity due to the personal-sensitive nature of the issues being discussed but gave their full names to the Post) said, “How I see it, the Tebeka Association is praiseworthy. They can help the evacuees. This is very important when people are stuck in a very hard economic situation for a long time. It is not simple.”
“People had to leave their houses. There is no income, especially no ongoing income, and everything is uncertain. We are entering a period of holidays when people expect to purchase things. The efforts of the association could really help,” said M.
While this would be true for all evacuees, M said it was even harder for Ethiopians. “There is so much bureaucracy. You need to fill out lots of things. It’s much harder for many Ethiopians, who do not speak Hebrew. They are stuck unless they find a way to get assistance to fill out the forms and deal with the state bureaucracy.”
“So Tebeka goes in and helps cut through the bureaucracy as well as to reduce the number of documents. Suddenly, Ethiopian evacuees can receive what is due to them,” said M.
Additional obstacles for ethiopian evacuees
The obstacles are not just a matter of language, but also of culture, according to M, who said, “much more is required for Ethiopians to understand their rights and it is much easier to receive help from someone who is similar to you.”
Questioned about how Ethiopian evacuees buy food when their workplaces do not exist or are shut down by the war, M stated, “Some people are trying to get loans from the bank to buy food or to seek help from relatives nearby, if they have, or to use any small amount of savings, if they have.”
“Many families go to live with other families and live in very cramped conditions. Evacuees choose between the “hotel” option [for indefinite stays, many evacuees consider the hotels practically fancy prisons] and relatives,” he said.
Regarding attempts to transition back to normal life, M explained, “Some started to go back to Ashkelon. It depends on what area of work they are in. Fewer are going back to Sderot. But many are trying to return to routine life in Ashkelon.”
Another Ethiopian evacuee, “Y,” had even harsher things to say.
“Tebeka helps Ethiopians with legal issues. Much of the sector do not have the capacity to defend themselves,” adding that despite the Basic Law on Human Dignity, “we still need help against racism and discrimination.”
Personally, Y said, “I had a problem at a place where I was studying and Tebeka really helped me by giving me strong representation.”
“I have known Tebeka for many years. I know a bunch of families for whom Tebeka helped fight discrimination in the areas of finding housing – there are lots of problems there. Now they are helping to get food to Ethiopian evacuees from the South,” he said.
Next, Y said, “I was evacuated from Ashkelon for two-and-a-half months.”
Like M, he said that more evacuees had returned to Ashkelon, but that most from Sderot and that area were not yet returned.
Y said, “I have a hard time getting to speak to someone who will help me. The government said they would give financial support, but it was insignificant. For six weeks we got nothing at all. And many elderly people are far more helpless than me about what to do.”
“Terrorists raided our neighborhoods and we had to run away and the government gave us small financial help for one month. First for 15 days, and then for another 15 days,” said Y.
Y added that he believed there has been insufficient interest in the safety of those living in the South and especially in the Ethiopian and other minority sectors for decades.
“There were no safe rooms and there were hundreds of missiles per day. You have only 17 seconds to get to the public bomb shelter area, which itself is not properly maintained. This is also against fancier Iranian-made missiles. One missile fell right next to our residence,” said Y.
Expressing frustration, he said, “It is among the least defended cities even though it was attacked with the most rockets. This aspect of our country is not normal. They do not count us as important.”
Moreover, he said, “We had to evacuate on our own, mid-threat. We called the city and all of the government offices. There was no help. It was a great disgrace. All of Ashkelon was covered in rockets. All businesses and places of work stopped.”
Y openly worried that, “I don’t know if I will be able to restore my source of income. The government did not even provide furlough pay for this very long extended period – that is very problematic.”
In addition, he stated, “Sderot evacuees got a hotel to stay in. We didn’t get anything. We went to Beersheva and temporarily crammed in with our parents. There was also no funding to pay for the costs of the evacuation.”
“People took out loans, but the banks took advantage and provided the loans only at very high interest [unlike the publicly advertised cheap loans]. Our children have no framework. We had to rush out and so we left most of our clothes in Ashkelon. We don’t have enough food – it is truly a disgrace,” said Y.
Despite the criticism, M and Y both hoped that people will support Tebeka’s effort to support the Ethiopian evacuees both legally and financially during this limbo period.
CEO Tomer Marsha worked as an attorney in the corporate and securities division of Herzog, Fox & Neeman before joining Tebeka in 2016.
He said, “I see supreme importance in being a supportive pillar for the Ethiopian-Israeli community during this difficult time, starting from giving access to legal assistance, and continuing with providing food grants to families who were evacuated from their houses due to the war.”