It surprises some to see that Jewish people come in a variety of colors. Just as humanity spread across the globe from one original family and adapted to their environments, so the tribes of Israel were scattered across the world and took on different shades and cultures according to where they ended up.
Now God is bringing His people home.
Beta Israel
Ethiopian Jews, collectively known as “Beta Israel”, which means “House of Israel” in the Ge’ez language, have been brought back to their homeland after thousands of years, often in dangerous circumstances.
The ancient Jewish community of Beta Israel was often known by the colloquial Ethiopian/Eritrean term “Falasha” which means “landless” or “wanderers”. Today that term is considered derogatory, as the concept of the “wandering Jew” is seen as evidence of the curses on Israel, sent to wander the earth like Cain. And it’s true that the tribes of Israel have wandered far and wide, but God has always promised to bring them back.
“For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.”” (Jeremiah 16:15-16)
While some returned to Israel willingly, others have been driven from their lands of exile back to Israel by necessity. Isaiah 60:8 talks of people “flying like a cloud”, and there have been daring and clandestine airlifts organized by Israel and many made the perilous journey on foot. Thousands fled from Ethiopia to Sudan, walking for weeks on end, and approximately 4,000 died on the way. Those who made it to Sudan were then airlifted to Israel.
There are several Black and Ethiopian Jews in the Bible such as the man who pulled Jeremiah out of the pit, the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8, and Zipporah, the wife of Moses. It was that last dynamic duo who inspired the name for Operation Moses which took place in 1984, bringing around 8000 Ethiopian Jewish refugees from Sudan, 200 at a time on 30 flights. A few years later in 1991, Operation Solomon, named after the belief that Beta Israel are descended from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, brought another 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in less than 24 hours. The amazing stories of dramatic rescue and ingenuity are well worth hearing!
Now each year, 50 days after Yom Kippur, the whole of Beta Israel celebrates the festival of Sigd, singing, dancing, and rejoicing in the giving of the Torah and in Zion. The joy to be finally back in the land is palpable.
The tribes are not lost
But of course Ethiopia is not the only land the tribes of Israel ended up in. There are also Bnei Manashe who are returning to Israel from India, Ashkenazis from Russia and Europe, Sephardic Jews from Spanish speaking countries like Spain and South America, as well as Italy, Morocco, and Mizrachi Jews from the east — from Yemen, Iraq, Iran, and Syria and many other Muslim countries. There are even some lost tribes that are slowly being revealed, such as the Pashtun of Afghanistan and the Lemba people of South Africa. It might all be very mysterious to us but God knows exactly where the ten tribes are: they’re not lost at all.
Though highly controversial, the regathering of the tribes of Israel it has been a process of decolonization after centuries of foreign rule. It’s true there were people left living in the land after the Jews were exiled in the first century, but they never had the luxury of self determination and autonomy. Before the reestablishment of Israel in 1948, the land was continually under the control of colonial powers including the British, the Turks, the Mamluks from Egypt, the Ayyubids from Iraq, the Islamic conquests of Saudia Arabia, and before that the Romans, the Greeks, the Persians and Babylonians). But now finally the land is once again ruled by its indigenous inhabitants, both Jewish and Arab.
The Arabic speaking peoples of the Land who have lived there for generations — some dating back to the time of Yeshua (see Acts 2:11) — have felt the land belonged to them and many consequently saw the Jewish return as a violation, a “Nakba” — a catastrophe. But ironically many Muslims of the area also have a complicated history. They are speaking Arabic and practicing Islam because of colonization. Many were once Jews and Christians, Maronites, Egyptians, Assyrians and Lebanese, for example, but there are many others. There are also Druze, Bedouins, and Circassians… and today they are all these tribes and people groups are free to participate in Israel’s leadership at the highest levels, and form an important part of Israel’s democratic government, judiciary, and even the army.
But back to the tribes of Israel.
Indigenous peoples of the world unite
As fast as the tribes of Israel are being gathered back to the land, the movement to try and expel them is also gathering pace. Antizionist claims that the Jews are not indigenous to Israel at all but “colonizers” from Europe are banded around, together with libels of apartheid and genocide, all of which are false. To colonize a land, there must be a country to colonize from, and where are Zionists from if not from Zion? Spending just one day in Israel blows the apartheid myth out of the water: Jews and Arabs live alongside each other with the same legal rights, which is obvious to anyone who has been here. The accusations of genocide are also being debunked one by one, but the fight is hard.
The fight is not against flesh and blood. We are watching a spiritual battle take place in real time, in front of our eyes. God has brought His people back as He promised, and Satan is opposing God’s handiwork at every opportunity.
However, Israel has found some unexpected allies among other indigenous peoples of the planet.
As an expression of solidarity with Israel and an affirmation of their indigeneity to the land, a cohort of Native Americans, Aboriginal and Māori people and other First Nations people from Africa, the Far East, and elsewhere are standing strong with Israel, and have established the “Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem”.
Founded by former New Zealand Cabinet Minister Hon. Alfred Ngaro and Dr Sheree Trotter, both of Māori descent, the IEJ aims to make connections with Israel at the highest level, bringing first nations scholars, politicians and spokespeople to build diplomatic networks of influence and advance scholarship countering false narratives.
The struggles of being separated from homelands, as well as trying to maintain culture and language from generation to generation has resonated with many other indigenous people.
“Whether the First Nations Aboriginal peoples of Australia, the Maori in New Zealand, the natives of Africa, American First Nations (formerly called Indians) and others, they are seeing the dry bones coming back to life,” the group said in a statement. They continued,
“The accusation that Jewish people are colonisers in their own land must be absolutely rejected.
Part of that is working with our allies, the other indigenous peoples in the world, who have the same types of problems of having their heritage and language under threat, and speaking together in one voice about these issues.”
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In addition to advocacy, the IEJ held an academic symposium, very fittingly at the Bible Lands Museum which displays countless proofs that the Jews are indeed indigenous to the land. Ten fascinating speakers gave presentations on how the Israelites managed to maintain their indigenous identity in exile; on the true meaning of settler colonialism and how to refute the accusation that Israel has colonized their own land. Interestingly, many of the IEJ are believers and this has profoundly informed their appreciation of Israel and Jewish history.
Nova Peris, an Aboriginal Olympic gold medallist and former Federal Senator for the Northern Territory in Australia, spoke of her joy to be in Israel, saying, “That internal connection to land and spirit is the same truth that lives in the heart of Jewish people, the Jewish people who have never ceded theirs.”
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Likening her own indigenous people with the Jews, Nova described them as “bound by ancient stories of survival, sovereignty, faith, and endurance.”
Some indigenous people groups are now looking to Israel as an example to follow, of how to endure, survive, and restore their own peoplehood after being stripped of so much for so long. But it has to be said that it’s not by the determination of the Jewish people themselves that Israel was reborn. The restoration of Israel has been, and continues to be, a work of God Himself.
“When he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west; they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.” (Hosea 11:10-11)
