An Ethiopian Jew is jailed with 52 other Jews in Sudan. He is a small boy, five years old, but he is beaten and tortured. Why was he in Sudan? He was escaping with his family to Israel. Israel mounts a rescue operation (still classified) and saves the 53 Jews, but brings them to Ethiopia, not Israel. The Jews wait another year in Ethiopia before finally being taken to Jerusalem.
Flash forward. This Jew is a Prisoner of Zion, just like Natan Scharansky. He suffered along with his family for promoting Zionism and Israel. There are 2,203 Prisoners of Zion now living in Israel. Most are from the former Soviet Union. But more than 15%, 369, are from Ethiopia. The problem? He's embarrassed to show his official government-issued Prisoner of Zion I.D.
Why? Because so few people realize that there are black Prisoners of Zion, he fears being laughed at and having the whole thing treated as a joke. His face still bears scars from the beatings in Sudan. His soul bears scars from Israel's callous treatment of true heroes with otherly-pigmented skin.