Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Eritrea

The small Jewish community of Asmara and its last caretaker, Israeli advisers and arms for Ethiopia against Eritrean independence, early ties after 1991, reported naval teams and a listening post on the Dahlak islands and Emba Soira, and Eritrean asylum seekers, the Holot centre, third-country deportations and the 2023 Tel Aviv clashes

Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Eritrea include a small Jewish community in Asmara that had dwindled to a single caretaker by the 2000s, Israeli support for Ethiopia during the Eritrean war of independence, reports of an Israeli intelligence presence on the Red Sea coast since independence, and the treatment of tens of thousands of Eritrean asylum seekers in "Israel".

Jewish community and religious life

History

According to the BBC, the first Jews in Eritrea came from Yemen in the late 19th century, following Italian colonial expansion and new commercial opportunities, and were joined in the 1930s by Jews fleeing antisemitism in Europe. The community peaked at about 500 in the 1950s. Some left after 1948, when the Zionist state was founded, but most left when the war of independence reached Asmara in the mid-1970s. About 150 people are buried in the Jewish cemetery. After the Second World War the British, who administered both Eritrea and Palestine, imprisoned "Jewish guerrillas" on the outskirts of Asmara. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in 2001 that the Cohen family had come to Massawa from Aden at the turn of the 20th century, that Jews once came from as far as Khartoum for the High Holidays, and that the last rabbi was evacuated in 1975 along with most of the expatriate community.

The community today

In 2006 Sami Cohen was the last Jew native to Asmara still living in the city, and looked after the synagogue and the cemetery. Judaism is not one of Eritrea's officially authorised religions, but he was left alone. Visitors, Israeli diplomats and UN officials sometimes made up the numbers for a service. The US State Department reported in 2023 that only one Jew was known to remain in the country, living there part-time, and that the government permitted him to maintain the Asmara synagogue as a historic site; there were not enough adherents for regular services.

How far is it Zionist? No Jewish organisation now operates in Eritrea. Some members of the historic community left for "Israel" after 1948, but no evidence of organised Zionist activity in the community was found.

Chabad

Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement

There is no Chabad Bot page for Eritrea, and the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi there.

Zionist movement and advocacy

No Zionist organisation operating in Eritrea was found.

Israeli state and commercial ties

Support for Ethiopia against Eritrean independence

Ethiopia federated with Eritrea in 1952 and annexed it ten years later. "Israel" and Ethiopia shared an interest in countering the Arab states that backed the Eritrean movement, and their security cooperation grew after the Eritrean struggle became an armed conflict in 1961. Under a 1958 military pact "Israel" provided, from 1964, counter-insurgency advisers in Eritrea. According to the historian Michael Bishku, a dozen or more Israeli counter-insurgency advisers were based in Eritrea, where they organised, trained and supplied Ethiopian commandos and frontier guards, who numbered 3,200 and 1,200 respectively by 1974. In 1982, during its war in Lebanon, "Israel" seized documents of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) in Beirut and delivered them to Ethiopia, which helped draw the two governments back together. After relations were restored in 1989, Africa Watch reported, Ethiopia received Israeli weapons and military instructors in return for letting Ethiopian Jews emigrate. A leaked US congressional staff memo said about 100 cluster bombs were supplied in late 1989, and Africa Watch said cluster bombs were used against civilian targets in Eritrea, including Massawa, "causing large numbers of civilian casualties".

Relations after 1991

In February 1991 the EPLF leader, Isaias Afwerki, received the Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia, Chaim Divon, who reportedly offered agricultural and development aid. "Israel" was among the first states, with Egypt, Sudan and Italy, to open a liaison office in Asmara. Isaias was quoted in the Washington Post in October 1992 as saying, "We have a lot to learn from the Israeli experience, especially in the field of development." In an interview with Arab News in August 1992 he called the ties "ordinary relations that should not be overblown". The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records an Eritrean order in 1992 for four Israeli Super Dvora Mk-2 patrol boats, delivered in 1993.

Reported bases and listening posts

In December 2012 the US consultancy Stratfor reported, citing "diplomatic and media sources", that "Israel" kept small naval teams in the Dahlak archipelago and at Massawa, and a "listening post" at Amba Soira, as part of its rivalry with Iran in the Red Sea. Stratfor described the Israeli presence as "very focused and precise, involving intelligence gathering in the Red Sea and monitoring Iran's activities". In June 2016 the Middle East Monitor, citing AlKhaleejonline.com and the Palestinian Information Centre, reported that "Israel" had completed its largest listening post in the Red Sea basin on Emba Soira, Eritrea's highest mountain, to monitor the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Arab coalition fighting in Yemen. It quoted an analyst who said the Eritrean opposition had confirmed the post's existence. These reports have not been independently confirmed.

Trade

Eritrea does not appear in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics' table of trade by country.

Migration and aliyah

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Eritrea separately in its table of immigrants by country of birth.

Eritrean asylum seekers in "Israel"

Human Rights Watch reported in 2014 that about 37,000 Eritreans and 14,000 Sudanese had crossed into "Israel" from Egypt before a new fence all but sealed the border in December 2012. Hundreds of Eritreans told Israeli organisations they had fled indefinite military conscription. Amendments passed in December 2013 to the 1954 Prevention of Infiltration Act, which branded all sub-Saharan Africans who had entered from Egypt as "infiltrators", allowed indefinite detention, and that month the authorities opened the Holot "Residency Center" in the Negev, which HRW called "a detention center in all but name". As of mid-August 2014 "Israel" had rejected 99.9% of Eritrean asylum claims, and by the end of June 2014 it had recognised only two Eritreans as refugees, compared with protection rates of 83% for Eritreans in countries such as Italy, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom in 2013. At least 367 Eritreans had left for Eritrea, and at least 83 Eritreans and Sudanese had been coerced into leaving for Rwanda and Uganda without any formal transfer agreements.

Third-country deportations, 2018

In January 2018 the Israeli government launched a procedure for deportation to third countries. Eritrean and Sudanese men were told to take $3,500 and a one-way ticket to Africa or face forced deportation or jail. "Israel" was reported to have made deals with Rwanda and Uganda to receive them, but both countries denied signing any such deals. In March 2018 the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on the plan, in response to a petition by 120 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers. In April 2018 the government admitted that the "third country", Rwanda, had refused to accept deportations, and announced an agreement with the UN refugee agency covering some 33,000 people. It cancelled the agreement less than 24 hours later and told the court that a deal with Uganda was still valid. Amnesty said that, at the time of writing, the deportations were suspended, while "Israel" and Uganda were still negotiating.

Tel Aviv clashes, 2023

On 2 September 2023 opponents of the Eritrean government broke through a police barricade around an event organised by the Eritrean embassy in Tel Aviv, after asking the Israeli authorities to cancel it. About 170 people were injured in clashes with police and between supporters and opponents of the government of President Isaias Afwerki. Police fired tear gas, stun grenades and live rounds, and an investigation was opened into the use of live fire. The next day Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "a red line" had been crossed, called for the immediate deportation of those involved and ordered a new plan to remove all African migrants, whom he described as "illegal infiltrators". The BBC estimated that about 18,000 Eritrean asylum seekers were living in "Israel".

Political interference

Israeli advisers trained and supplied Ethiopian units fighting the Eritrean independence movement, and Israeli arms reached Ethiopia during the war. Since independence there have been unconfirmed reports of Israeli intelligence installations on Eritrean territory. "Israel" has also sought to send Eritrean asylum seekers to third countries in Africa.

Jeffrey Epstein

In iMessages with Steve Bannon on 28 July 2018, Jeffrey Epstein wrote: "I spoke with the president of Ethiopia and Eritrea , they have agreed not to do any more work with the Chinese. ! as they now understand the trick. In fact there is a possiblitiy of the two countries becoming one." The message does not say whom he spoke to, and no other record of such a conversation was found.

See also

• Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States
• Zionist movement
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Ethiopia
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Sudan
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to South Sudan

External links

• Human Rights Watch: "Make Their Lives Miserable" (2014)