"Eretz Yisrael isn’t a country for cushim [a derogatory Hebrew term that is the rough equivalent of nigger]."
Above: file photo
Israel Refuses Entry To Black American Convert And Her 10-Year-Old Son
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
It is uncomfortable, but there’s no other way to say this: Israel is at its heart a racist country.
It spent decades doing everything possible not to rescue Ethiopian Jews only to be pushed into rescues that were partially planned and partially executed by the US. And even then, especially during 1984’s so-called Operation Moses, top Israeli leaders did whatever they could to leak the information of the rescue to cause it to collapse, which it eventually did.
Almost 31 years later, Israel’s Ethiopian Jewish community complains bitterly about the racial discrimination it faces from police and, all too often, from employers and the government, as well.
At the same time, Israel has mistreated thousands of non-Jewish African asylum seekers fleeing civil war and famine. Although most clearly qualify for refugee status under international law, Israel has given that status to far less than one percent of them. These poor, destitute people often are forced to live on the streets or in public parks and constantly fear arrest as they wait, in some cases for years, for their asylum applications to be processed. Almost all of those asylum request are, when finally processed, denied by Israel, often in contravention of international agreements Israel has signed.
In this overtly racist environment, it is no surprise to learn that African American converts to Judaism and their children often face overt racism and harassment when trying to visit Israel.
The most recent case of this involves an African-American Jewish mother, Idit Malka, and her 10-year-old son Kahxin. They tried to come to Israel for a summer vacation but instead of touring the country, visiting family who already lives there and attending a family wedding, they spent two days under arrest in Ben-Gurion International Airport and were then expelled from the country.
Was Idit Malka a drug mule? A spy for a hostile government? A known agitator of some kind?
No.
Idit Malka and her son were detained and expelled for one reason and one reason only: the color of their skin.
The Malkas, who live in Cape Coral, Florida, arrived in Israel on June 12 to celebrate the wedding of Malka’s sister who lives in Yeroham, and to visit her five other siblings and their children who live in Israel.
Israel’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) admits it detained and then expelled Malka and her son and claims it did so because it believed she might be a member of the Black Hebrews. PIBA said it feared Malka and her son were planning to remain in Israel instead of returning to the US on their already scheduled August 20 flight.
PIBA also claimed Malka was combative and violent after she and her son were detained. Malka told the Jerusalem Post PIBA wasn’t telling the truth.
Malka, who is now 40-years-old, moved with her family to Israel when she was a young child and joined the Black Hebrews.
But in 1987 when she was 13-years-old, Malka’s family became so disillusioned with the Black Hebrews that they left the sect and returned to the US. She underwent a Reform conversion to Judaism eight years later in 1995. Then nine years after that, she converted again, this time through a Conservative rabbi in 2004.
“None of my siblings belong to the [Black Hebrew] community in Dimona, and I have been living as a Jew my entire adult life,” Malka told the Post.
In 2006, she moved to Israel and tried to get citizenship under the Law of Return, which should apply to her. But Israel refused to grant her citizenship, apparently because she is black and had an affiliation with the Black Hebrews when she was a small child.
After four years of fighting with the government, she and her children returned to the US in 2010.
Her arrival in June was her first return trip since then.
“As soon as we arrived at the border control, the clerk took us to a sitting room. I waited there for a good hour, until a woman came out and said that we were being returned. When I asked why, she asked me ‘why are you here?’ I told her that I was there for our summer vacation, to visit family and to attend my sister’s wedding. But I feel the denial of entry was made before I even had a chance to speak with anyone.…I told them from the beginning my reason for coming to Israel. Once we were detained, we were never given any reason other than one female agent screaming at me ‘Eretz Yisrael isn’t a country for cushim!" [a derogatory Hebrew term that is the rough equivalent of nigger.] At that point, being so tired and humiliated, I did open my mouth and curse at her. But I was never violent, as they claimed,” Malka told the Post.
In response, PIBA told the Post Malka arrived at the airport without prior coordination with the Authority (something American Jews do not need to do), changed the story of why she was visiting, and became violent and abusive when told her entry was being denied.
“If she had requested permission to come to Israel ahead of time, she would not have been rejected and could have prevented this from the beginning,” PIBA’s spokesman, Sabine Hadad, said.
Malka was allowed one phone call by PIBA and used it to call one of her brothers who arranged an emergency appeal to an on-call judge. But the judge ruled to uphold the Malkas’ denial of entry.
The Black Hebrews already living in Israel have had legal permanent residency for more more than a decade, and more than 100 of the 2,500 Black Hebrews living in Israel currently serve in the IDF – a far better ratio than the number of haredim who do so.
Nicole Maor of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), an arm of the Reform Movement, helped Malka try to get citizenship when she lived in Israel almost a decade ago. It told the Post African-American converts to Judaism frequently have problems entering Israel, largely because the legitimacy of their conversions are questioned by the Interior Ministry.
Maor also said African-Americans who plan to stay in Israel for extended periods of time or make aliya face extreme scrutiny from the government due to fears they will join the Black Hebrews.
Malka is still shocked by how she and her son were treated.
“My head was spinning. I have a 10-year-old who wanted to visit his cousins and family, and he’s had his summer vacation ruined in the most horrific way. As an American citizen, I shouldn’t need prior coordination to visit Israel. And a Jew does not need to coordinate before visiting her homeland,” Malka said.
But she’s wrong.
Black Jews – no matter who converted them or their parents or grandparents, no matter if they come from families that have been Jewish for many centuries, perhaps millennia, like Ethiopian Jews – need that extra coordination, because Israel is, in the end, a racist state.