I noticed that all of these Ethiopian Israeli runners train in Ethiopia to my knowledge and I can understand that because Israel in the summer is simply too hot basically everywhere. The winters are fine though and I remember back to my days in 1986 when I trained and ran and worked at Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon, in Netanya, under the guidance of legend Yair Karni. If my memory serves me right, at that time, there were no Ethiopian Israeli runners.
Back to the real question I have is - what is the real connection between these Ethiopian Jews and the land of Israel?
I can understand Europeans having grievances with letting Israel compete in the European championships, but perhaps sporting prowess should not surpass empathy and understanding for oppressed athletes in certain countries who have little chance to compete in their present geographical location. A few years ago there was talk of admitting morocco to become a European nation but that was soon crushed and limits have to be set.
By the way, in this championship, the Israeli Ethiopians were obviously head and shoulders team wise ahead of everybody else, by a long way. Their depth is phenomenal.
