Donate Us

Help us keep this free site alive with a small contribution from you. Select an amount below.

Wednesday, July 3, 2019



Ethiopian Jews refer to themselves as "Beta Israel" and consider the term "Falasha" to be derogatory.

"Falasha" means stranger, exile, wanderer or landless person. Wikipedia notes: "The derogatory term Falasha, meaning 'landless, wanderers', was given to the community by the Emperor Yeshaq I in the 15th century, and is to be avoided as extremely offensive. "

It was already known to be offensive in 1988 as mentioned in this Washington Post article. The BBC noted its offensiveness twenty years ago.

Yet Encyclopedia Britannica still has an entry for "Falasha." It doesn't even note that this is an offensive term. Its online entry was edited earlier this year, so they don't have the excuse of, say, the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906.

Perhaps worse, the Britannica students site also has an entry for "Falasha," teaching children that this is an acceptable term.

This is racism enshrined in the most prestigious encyclopedia in the world.

(Palestinian Arab websites routinely use the word "Falasha" transliterated to Arabic, and the current violent demonstrations in Israel by the Beta Israel are being followed closely as the Arab media. The Palestinians are anxious to call Israeli society racist, without noticing that their very terminology is racist. But no one expects Arabs to hold by Western standards of not referring to people by names they find offensive. The question  as to why Arabs are held to lower standards than Westerners, and why people would be more upset at Britannica than Palestinian Arab media for using the offensive term,  is a topic for another day.)





We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

EoZTV Podcast

Powered by Blogger.

follow me

search eoz

Recent posts from other blogs

subscribe via email

comments

Contact

translate

E-Book

source materials

reference sites

multimedia

source materials for Jewish learning

great places to give money

media watch

humor

.

Source materials

Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts Ever

follow me

Followers


pages

Random Posts

Pages - Menu

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون

Donate!

Tweets

Compliments

Monthly subscription:
Subscription options

One time donation:

Interesting Blogs

Categories

Best posts of 2016

Blog Archive

compliments

Algemeiner: "Fiercely intelligent and erudite"

Omri: "Elder is one of the best established and most respected members of the jblogosphere..."
Atheist Jew:"Elder of Ziyon probably had the greatest impression on me..."
Soccer Dad: "He undertakes the important task of making sure that his readers learn from history."
AbbaGav: "A truly exceptional blog..."
Judeopundit: "[A] venerable blog-pioneer and beloved patriarchal figure...his blog is indispensable."
Oleh Musings: "The most comprehensive Zionist blog I have seen."
Carl in Jerusalem: "...probably the most under-recognized blog in the JBlogsphere as far as I am concerned."
Aussie Dave: "King of the auto-translation."
The Israel Situation:The Elder manages to write so many great, investigative posts that I am often looking to him for important news on the PalArab (his term for Palestinian Arab) side of things."
Tikun Olam: "Either you are carelessly ignorant or a willful liar and distorter of the truth. Either way, it makes you one mean SOB."
Mondoweiss commenter: "For virulent pro-Zionism (and plain straightforward lies of course) there is nothing much to beat it."
Didi Remez: "Leading wingnut"