How true is it that Israel deceitfully gave Ethiopian Jews birth control injections?

[King_David]

When it was reported earlier this week that Israeli officials had been giving birth control to arriving Ethiopian Jews "without their consent", the international media had a field day. Twitter lapped it up, too. Here was hard evidence, observers said, of Israeli racism. Some even used the word "sterilisation" and haughtily reminded Israelis that the Holocaust, that thing they go on about all the time, also started with the sterilisation of "undesirables". Echoing Lib Dem MP David Ward's recent chastisement of "the Jews" for failing to learn anything from their experiences during the Holocaust, bloggers and observers accused Israel's sterilisers of repeating the very history that Israel's founders sought to escape from.

But how true is it that Israel "forced" or "coerced" Ethiopian Jews into taking birth control, without even telling them it was birth control? An interesting piece in Haaretz says it isn't very true, and "the more [this] story is repeated, the more warped and distorted it becomes". Haaretz says it is certainly the case, as revealed in an Israeli TV documentary in December, that Israel's immigration authorities are guilty of "insensitivity" and "cultural condescension" towards Ethiopian Jews, and perhaps a "certain level of racism". The article says these African Jews were indeed given Depo-Provera, a birth-control injection that lasts for three months, both in Addis Ababa, as they waited to go to Israel, and also in the absorption centres they first stayed in upon arrival in Israel. But it is not the case – or it certainly has not been proven by anyone – that they were given these injections deceitfully, without their consent, being misled into believing they were just inoculations.

Haaretz says the Ethiopian women were "coaxed" or "strongly convinced" to have the Depo-Provera shot, not forced. The idea that they were given it without their knowledge springs from the testimony of a few women who simply said "they weren't aware the shots were birth control"; that could be down to these individual women's lack of understanding or confusion, says Haaretz, since "the vast majority of the Ethiopian women who received Depo-Provera were aware it was birth control and received it willingly".


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100200874/how-true-is-it-that-israel-deceitfully-gave-ethiopian-jews-birth-control-injections/

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. Aren't blog posts great? When the truth gets you down one can always find

a blog to pick their spirits up.

Then there's the news that brings us all back down to reality.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-admits-ethiopian-women-were-given-birth-control-shots.premium-1.496519

[King_David]

2. I guess you disagree with Brendan O'Neill ,

You know, the guy who wrote the article /Blog post in discussion (not the article that you preferred to post )

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. I'm posting a relevant news article. Not a blog post.

It's great that you can link to a satirist, though.

Kudos to you on that.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Brendan O'Neill is a libertarian and someone with very strange views on racism...

For instance, he doesn't believe that racism at football matches should be cleaned up at all, as it's merely 'passion' of the working-class, blah blah blah...

'Don’t be fooled by the high-falutin’ morals of this drive against the alleged scourge of pitch-based racism. This isn’t anti-racism – it’s the policing of passion. It might package itself as an anti-racist initiative, designed to bring about an era of racial equality, but in truth it’s a class war against the beastly blokes and uncouth urchins who are seen to make up English football’s player-base and fanbase. The true driving force behind this aloof campaign to ‘clean up’ football is the elites’ utter incomprehension of the mass passions that get aired at football matches, which they stupidly mistake for ‘racism’ or ‘hatred’.

In recent weeks, relatively minor incidents on the pitch and in the terraces have been blown out of proportion by snobbish football-watchers, giving an impression of racial hatred running rampant in English football.'

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/11963/

While his opinion is interesting, because of his past views on racism, it's not one anyone at DU should take the slightest bit seriously, imo...

[King_David]

5. Ethiopian women and birth control: when a scoop becomes a smear

Ethiopian women and birth control: when a scoop becomes a smear
The more the story about Ethiopian women who were given birth control shots was repeated, the more warped and distorted it became.
By Allison Kaplan Sommer | 14:20 30.01.13 | 18


http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/routine-emergencies/ethiopian-women-and-birth-control-when-a-scoop-becomes-a-smear.premium-1.500341

[Violet_Crumble]

6. That blog opinion's already been posted as an OP. Here's the link...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113429915

I notice you had nothing to say about the racist Brendan O'Neill, and just went and found another blog opinion along the same lines. Can I take it that like one or two other extremely partisan 'supporters' of Israel, you don't believe Israel has done anything wrong when it comes to these Ethiopian women?

[shira]

7. This latest libel isn't true at all. Just more proof of a massive smear campaign.

Last edited Sat Feb 9, 2013, 06:53 PM - Edit history (2)

Let’s Get the Facts Straight About Ethiopian Jews and Contraception

http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/02/07/lets-get-the-facts-straight-about-ethiopian-jews-and-contraception/

According to a sub-headline accompanying an Op-Ed in the English edition of Ha’aretz, “The revelation that Israel is sterilizing Ethiopian women adds to a shameful history of abuse of powerless women and communities.” That’s a shocking, horrifying assertion with its overtones of Nazi racism and Dr. Mengele’s experimentation. It’s also completely false. Although it was later corrected, the damage was done....

A serious journalist covering the widespread use of Depo-Provera among Ethiopians would have taken into account women’s desire for discreet birth control. Gabai interviewed the head of the Israeli Society for Contraception, who noted the cultural preference for injections, but she completely discounted this point in her conclusion.

Moreover, Gabai ignored other factors aside from alleged coerced injections which contributed to a lower birth rate. For instance, in the modern world, declining birth rates are associated with greater affluence and an improvement in the status of women. As they gain greater study and work opportunities, as well as better access to more advanced medical care and family planning, many women opt for fewer children. Poor populations with high child mortality rates also have high fertility rates. Israel has a lower infant and child mortality rate than Ethiopia....

But, is it true, as Gabai says to one of her interviewees, an Ethiopian mother of four, “they told you [having children is] forbidden in Israel”? The mother, who said she intends to have more children, replied: “No, why forbidden? There are loads of children. What, why forbidden?”

Irresponsible, sensationalist reports distract from real social challenges facing Ethiopians in Israel, and do not help them.

There are those, however, who do benefit from this saga. In the digital era, where falsehoods long outlast yellowed news clippings, the lie about Israel’s sterilization of Ethiopians will doubtless become another weapon in the arsenal used by extremists to delegitimize the Jewish state.