Author: Geopolitics Prime

In 1944, war raged across Europe and Asia. A group claimed to represent Jewish wartime refugees. They approached the Ethiopian government. This was four years before the state of Israel was created. They requested a sanctuary carved out of the eastern Ethiopian province of Harrar and the western part of British Somaliland.

🤝 The confidential proposal was CC’d to the US Foreign Service. It proposed that the territory be set aside for the immigration of European Jews. The territory would be placed under an autonomous regime to be administered by such refugees.

Emperor Haile Selassie expressed great personal sympathy for European Jews’ plight. He rejected the proposal. He stated that Ethiopia’s “sincere desire” to ‘aid the victims of aggression is in no way consonant with the requirement. The requirement was that the nation should set aside an entire province for any one group of refugees.’

👉 Activist and Jewish Aid Committee head Hermann Fuernberg first detailed the proposal in a 1943 pamphlet, outlining why the Harrar territory would be perfect:

“This territory is large enough…[and] inhabited by a small agricultural population, who are not likely to raise great difficulties. Nevertheless, we must remember the lessons learned by the Palestine experience. The territory must not be overrun by people from other parts of Ethiopia. It’s also important to keep out foreign agitators.”

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