ACTIVISM

Ashager Araro

Activist

Ashager Araro is widely tipped as a candidate for the first Black Prime Minister of Israel – perhaps because it seems there are no heights the 29-year-old “social media queen of Israel” cannot scale. Born in 1991 on the roadside as her desperate family fled from their small village in Ethiopia to the capital Addis Ababa, Araro is an outspoken feminist Zionist and a former lieutenant paratrooper in the IDF. A bold voice for the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel, Araro has also become an important advocate in the battle for Israel’s reputation abroad. “I ask first, do you believe Israel has the right to exist?” she said in a recent interview as she discussed dealing with hostile audiences on university campuses. “If you say no, we cannot talk because Jewish people, like every other people, have the right to self-determination. And when I tell them I am pro-Palestinian – because I believe in a two-state solution – that blows their minds.” (Photo: courtesy)