Image of the Day

Some of the women interviewed said they were told that birth control
pills were not suitable for them because they were not capable of
remembering to take them daily. Video shot with a hidden camera during
an Israeli health clinic visit by an Ethiopian immigrant, during which she
gets a Depo-Provera shot, indeed documents healthcare providers
expressing this exact opinion of Ethiopian women.
Gabai interviewed a female gynecologist who expressed shock at
hearing that just about all Ethiopian women are given Depo-Provera shots,
saying that it is rarely prescribed and usually recommended only for
women who are institutionalized or developmentally disabled (in other
words, women who cannot be relied upon to practice other methods
responsibly). A male medical expert, however, said Depo-Provera is no big
deal and that he had heard that it was the primary means of birth control in
Ethiopia in general.
An Ethiopian man who works for the Absorption Ministry denied
knowledge of any program to suppress the Ethiopian birthrate, and three
kessim, or Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders, emphasizing that all is
God’s will, also claimed to know nothing about the alleged forced family
planning practices.
A women who works to absorb Ethiopian children and families into
Israeli society expressed her astonishment at perceiving a “missing
generation” of Ethiopian children and asked why this particular group has
been targeted in this way. “We have other disadvantaged populations in
Israeli society, like the Haredim and Arabs, and no one ever thought to
impose a birthrate suppression plan on them,” she said.
As would be expected, the Health Ministry, the Education Ministry
the Jewish Agency, and the JDC all responded to Gabai’s findings with
letters denying any intervention in family planning issues among the
Ethiopian immigrants.
Gabai proposed a number of motives that could be behind what she
uncovered. It could have been “an intention to do good, to prevent
poverty, and to help with the adjustment to Western urbanized living.” Or,
it could have involved “economic calculations to reduce immigration and