Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: September 21, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=31952
Introduction: Sonu Jain travels
to Hebron settlement and finds Manipuris fighting fear with hope in their
promised land
In the the dust raised over the
red carpet to Ariel Sharon, in the noisy buzz of the war on terror, drowned
was this little story. It's an Indo-Israeli cooperation story but it has
almost nothing to do with New Delhi. It began in Manipur in the North-
East and now plays out every day in the West Bank.
Its principal characters are about
700 men, women and children, of a remote tribe from Manipur, the Kuki-Chin-Mizo,
proclaimed as one of the 10 lost tribes of Jews-the Benei Menashe Jews.
They came here 10 years ago using
their ''right of return'' to come back to their homeland. As Jewish ''settlers''
in Qiryat Arba, near Hebron, they are at the frontlines of Israel's war,
reviled by Palestinians as symbols of Israel's occupation and drawing sympathy
from political parties who say they are being using by Sharon to provoke
the Palestinians.
But that's not an issue this evening.
The bullets and the bombs have fallen
silent as 75-year-old Yonathan Touthang chants Hebrew prayers. A former
Indian Army jawan, his family sits around the table observing Seva Brakho
(seven-day blessing) for his newly wed daughter. She's 21 but just a year
old here. Bread and wine are passed around, the couple are blessed to swaying,
chanting and clapping. Once they quieten, you can hear the Jewish Army
vehicles trundling outside.
The reason is just a few metres
to see: from Touthang's balcony, you can see the lights glimmer from the
Palestinian village in between the olive trees.
''We could not have come to a better
place,'' says Tzvi Khaute, a community spokesman. ''Just a few metres away
from where we live our father Abraham is buried with his wife and sons...Who
says this place is unsafe? Terrorism exists everywhere in the world.''
People like Khaute were first identified
by a rabbi in charge of locating these tribes from all over the world visiting
them and confirming that many of their customs were Jewish in nature-they
chanted in Hebrew though they didn't know what the words meant, they believed
in one God, practiced circumcision and even observed the Sabbath.
After several visits, they were
declared as one of the lost tribes that were banished from Israel by the
Abyssinians in the eight century.
The Sharon government, strapped
of cash and under fire for pushing these Bene Menashe Jews into controversial
settlements, has frozen almost 3,000 applications for immigration from
Manipur.
For those who are here, it's not
easy either. While the Central Rabbinate, Israeli's highest religious authority,
has accepted them as Jews, they have to go through the process of conversion-learning
Hebrew and the tenets of Judaism before they can get citizenships-only
75 of them have reached cleared this stage. Because they aren't fluent
in either Hebrew or Judaism, they do not get the nearly $20,000 each settler
gets plus child maintenance.
So Amishave, an NGO has stepped
forward to help with lessons and money, enough to buy a house and learn
Hebrew.
''We have a good life here,'' says
Touthang. ''In India, we were oppressed.'' Look around and you can see
why he says that: the settlement is like a plush housing colony complete
with stadiums, hospitals and schools. But his eyes fill up with tears as
he recalls his home in Manipur on the Burma border and tries out his Hindi
with the reporter. For Khaute, though, that's nostalgia. Both his children
were born here and they speak fluent Hebrew though their mother speaks
only Manipuri. They may be caught in such cross-cultural currents but India
isn't far away. Jeremiah who works as a cook sends money back home every
week for his sister's family.
