An Ethiopian immigrants’ rights group has been working to change an Immigrant
Absorption Ministry policy that it claims forces new olim to purchase property
in limited neighborhoods – some in very poor or troubled areas – to receive a
government housing grant and mortgage package.
However, the ministry said
at a Knesset hearing last month that the policy is aimed at avoiding a trend of
“ghettoizing” the new immigrants.
RELATED:Ethiopian immigrants set to celebrate their first SederEthiopian Israelis reject possible project head appointmentStill, Ziva Mekonen-Dagu, executive
director of the Israel Association of Ethiopian Jews, told The Jerusalem Post
Wednesday that such a policy is not only “patronizing” but severely infringes on
human rights, and is “creating new ghettos” in other areas.
“The
Immigrant Absorption Ministry thinks it can tell Ethiopian immigrants what to
do, and no one will complain or respond – but it is not right for a person to
tell another person where they can or cannot buy a house,” she
said.
Mekonen-Dagu added that during a meeting last week with
representatives of the Immigrant Absorption and Housing and Construction
ministries, “we told them that these kinds of policies are simply not
acceptable.”
She took over as executive director of the grass-roots NGO last September, and
said she sees this issue as her first big battle for improving the status of
Ethiopian immigrants.
Mekonen-Dagu said many of the streets offered to
the immigrants are in low socio-economic neighborhoods, such as the haredi
stronghold Mea She’arim in Jerusalem; or in crime-ridden neighborhoods in south
Tel Aviv. Some are even in mixed Jewish- Arab neighborhoods, such as
Ajami in Jaffa, or Beit Hanina in east Jerusalem, she said.
“Those we
spoke to are not willing to move to Mea She’arim, or into Muslim neighborhoods,”
Mekonen-Dagu said. “It’s not that they are racist – and I know there are
some Israelis who believe in the principles of co-existence – but that is their
choice. For these immigrants they were given no choice.”
Mekonen-Dagu
added that during a recent visit to Ethiopian families now living in Jaffa, she
heard how the immigrants – who must undergo an Orthodox conversion to Judaism as
part of the immigration process – are bitterly disappointed at being forced to
send their children to mixed Jewish-Christian-Muslim kindergartens and
schools.
“The teacher told them that it is an Israeli-style kindergarten,
but the [olim] do not want to be celebrating with Santa Claus during Hanukka,”
she explained.
“It is simply not fair to say that one street or city is
closed to new immigrants ‘because it will create a ghetto’ – but then force the
people to buy in areas or streets where there are already social problems and
serious crime.”
During a meeting last month of the Knesset’s Aliya,
Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, Haviv Katsav, deputy director for
housing in the Immigrant Absorption Ministry, explained that the policy was
designed to prevent immigrants from moving into neighborhoods where Ethiopians
constitute 9 percent of the overall population – including Rehovot, Netanya and
Kiryat Malachi.
Katsav said the ministry wants to direct Ethiopian olim
to areas where they presently constitute less than 5% of total
residents.
He insisted that the core of the problem was more the size of
the government grant/mortgage allocation, which “does not allow them to buy in
areas that are not already in distress.”
Under current government
guidelines, new immigrants from Ethiopia are entitled to a combination grant and
mortgage amounting to NIS 237,000 for a young couple; and roughly NIS 500,000
for a family of up to six people.
The lower amount, which Mekonen-Dago
said is “not even enough to buy a one-room apartment in most decent
neighborhoods in this country,” has been greatly debated and criticized because
it forces Ethiopian immigrants to buy in only poor areas.
In addition, a
recent study by the Knesset Research and Information Department found that the
number of Ethiopian immigrants utilizing the government grant/mortgage has
dropped significantly in the last year, as housing prices in Israel continue to
skyrocket.
Last year only 503 families managed to buy new apartments,
compared to 750 the previous year. This year the numbers have fallen even more
drastically.
On Wednesday, MK Danny Danon (Likud), chairman of the
Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, told the Post that his
committee was working with the Treasury to increase the grant/mortgage
allocation to NIS 700,000 maximum per family.
He also said he had given
the Immigrant Absorption Ministry a grace period to create clearer guidelines
for property purchases.
“No one should be telling them where to buy an
apartment, but I do understand the policy of preventing them from buying in
certain neighborhoods or streets where there are already large groups of new
immigrants,” Danon said.
A spokesman for the Immigrant Absorption
Ministry said an inter-ministerial committee – with representatives from the
Housing and Construction Ministry – has already been established to look into
the matter.
“Under our current policy, which is based on a government
decision, Ethiopian immigrants are entitled to a grant if they purchase property
in areas with a strong socio-economic status, according to the Central Bureau of
Statistics,” said the spokesman. “This is also based on how well the cities can
absorb the new immigrants, and on the percentage of Ethiopian immigrants already
living there.”
Even though Mekonen-Dagu is now working closely with
ministry officials to redraft new housing regulations, she added Wednesday that
the policy was symptomatic of the state’s overall approach to the Falash Mura
immigration.
Last November, the government approved measures to continue
with the organized immigration of some 8,000 Falash Mura – Ethiopian Jews whose
ancestors were forcibly converted to Christianity more than 150 years ago.
Subsequently, several large international Jewish organizations came forward to
help fund what is now being labeled as “the final phase” of aliya from
Ethiopia.
However, Mekonen-Dagu contends, “this is really cosmetic. If
the government has made a decision to bring in more immigrants, then it needs to
take responsibility for helping those that are already here.”