ABSTRACT
The first Ethiopian night-club/disco in Israel, the Walia, opened in October, 1991, in the Hamasgar warehouse district of Tel Aviv. It was started by two young men (aged 31 and 26) who wished to cater for their own and younger age groups, to counteract the culture shock they experienced in being Ethiopian in a strange culture. An article in the Jerusalem Post in April 1992 about the club, mentioned the singer Zemene Melesse and the keyboard player Teshager Yilma, both of whom had come to Israel in Operation Solomon. 1
