The Jerusalem Post, April 21, 2011
Government creating ‘new ghettos’ by restricting where immigrants can buy homes with public aid, claims Ethiopian advocacy group.
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.
Still, 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 inJerusalem Jaffa , or Beit Hanina in east Jerusalem
“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." More reading on The Jerusalem Post.
Government creating ‘new ghettos’ by restricting where immigrants can buy homes with public aid, claims Ethiopian advocacy group.
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.
Still, 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
“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." More reading on The Jerusalem Post.
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