Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a test larger than one candidate and more revealing than another campaign speech: Will Likud place Gabi Gebre Worku, the party activist its own members chose to represent immigrants, in a realistic position on its Knesset list?
Or will Ethiopian-Israeli participation once again be welcomed at the ballot box but excluded from the room where national decisions are made?
This comes as Israel approaches one of the most consequential elections in its history.
As Ethiopian-Israeli families continue sending their children to defend the country. As thousands of Ethiopian Jews still wait in uncertainty to come home from Ethiopia. As Israel struggles to answer accusations that it is divided by race and origin.
And as the Likud presents itself as the national movement capable of representing Jews from every corner of the world.
This is not a demand for charity. It is a demand for political consistency.
Netanyahu and the Likud deserve credit for previously opening the door to Ethiopian-Israeli representation, an act of inclusive leadership, political generosity, and recognition of our community’s rightful place in Israel’s national life.
In 2022, Netanyahu placed former MK Tsega Melaku, a Jewish Ethiopian woman, in the 37th position on the Likud list. That decision mattered.
It demonstrated that Netanyahu understood, at least in principle, that the Ethiopian Jewish community should be seen not merely as a symbol of Zionist rescue but as a source of Israeli leadership.
But that single appointment cannot become a permanent excuse. Representation is not accomplished by occasionally selecting a person of Ethiopian origin.
The real question is whether that individual is rooted in the community, trusted by it, committed to the party, and capable of carrying both relationships into the Knesset.
Melaku withdrew before the 2026 Likud primary after apparently concluding that she was unlikely to secure a realistic position through the internal election.
But her withdrawal also created an unavoidable question: Would Likud allow another Ethiopian-Israeli leader to compete through the party’s democratic process or would the community simply disappear from the list?
Worku answered that question by doing what democracy demands: he entered a fiercely competitive primary and ran alongside government ministers, sitting Knesset members, and nationally recognized political figures.
He is not a stranger recruited at the last moment to improve a campaign photograph. He is a longtime Likud member and Ethiopian-Israeli community leader from Haifa.
He previously worked as a political aide to former Likud lawmaker and current Ambassador to Ethiopia Dr. Avraham Neguise. Worku has remained active in public advocacy, immigrant integration, community unity, and the campaign to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews home.
Most importantly, Worku submitted himself to Likud voters. He did not demand a position simply because he is Ethiopian. He competed fiercely in the primary.
He traveled across the country, organized supporters, spoke directly with party members, and asked them to judge him by his record and earnestly consider giving him their votes. Likud members responded with confidence, supporting Worku strongly enough for him to win the immigrants’ contest.
Although the immigrant MK slate is expected to be around 41 on the list, far below the party’s currently projected strength, his performance established something that cannot honestly be dismissed: he possesses support inside the Likud as well as the Ethiopian-Israeli community.
That should count for more than political connections arranged after the voting ends.
Primary elections become meaningless if party members are invited to choose their representatives, but their choices are then buried beneath appointments made for coalition convenience, celebrity appeal, or factional bargaining.
A party cannot praise internal democracy when the votes strengthen its leadership and disregard that democracy when the result produces an inconvenient candidate.
Demonstrating that we matter
Ethiopian Israelis understand this pattern too well.
Political party leaders remember us shortly before elections. Candidates visit our ceremonies, praise Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, celebrate Sigd, and speak emotionally about the ancient Jewish longing for Jerusalem.
Then the lists are finalized, the cameras leave, and Ethiopian Israelis are again told to wait. We have waited long enough.
I write as an Ethiopian-Israeli American Jew, a Modern Orthodox educator and diplomacy expert, and a student of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
I do not believe representation should be reduced to skin color. Nor do I believe every Ethiopian candidate automatically represents Ethiopian Israelis.
Worku has earned serious consideration precisely because of the relationships he has built within the community and the Likud movement.
He has worked without dividing Ethiopian Jews into competing camps and has consistently supported the struggle to reunite families separated between Israel and Ethiopia.
Netanyahu has been given significant authority to reserve positions on Likud’s final Knesset slate. He should use that authority to move Worku into a realistic position, preferably within the first 23 places.
Doing so would not overturn the primary. It would honor its message.
Netanyahu would be elevating a candidate who actually ran, received votes, and demonstrated loyalty to Likud. He would not be importing an outsider over the heads of party members.
He would be correcting a structural problem that placed the winner of an important representative contest far beyond the number of seats Likud is presently expected to win.
This would also strengthen Likud politically. Ethiopian Israelis are not asking to be treated as permanent immigrants or grateful dependents. They are citizens, soldiers, reservists, educators, entrepreneurs, rabbis, journalists, and public servants.
They want to participate in governing the country they sacrificed to reach.
Netanyahu has often presented Likud as the political home of communities once excluded by Israel’s old elites. Here is his opportunity to prove that promise still has meaning.
Jewish leaders worldwide should also speak. Those who proudly tell the story of Ethiopian Jews at conferences, fundraising dinners, and Israel celebrations should communicate respectfully with Netanyahu and Likud’s leadership.
Celebrating our journey to Jerusalem while remaining silent about our exclusion from power is not solidarity. It is sentimentality.
Worku entered the primary, faced the voters, and won the immigrants’ contest. Now he deserves a realistic opportunity to serve.
Likud asked Ethiopian Israelis to believe in the party, organize within it, and vote through its institutions. They did. Now Likud must demonstrate that their votes matter.
The writer is a former New York City Supreme Court detective, an investigator and educator in conflict resolution and restorative peace, and a moral diplomacy expert. His upcoming book, Moral Diplomacy for a Broken World, is inspired by the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.