Israel plans to absorb 8,700 Ethiopian immigrants

RAMALLAH: Israeli Interior Ministry delegates will leave for Ethiopia in the coming days to examine whether 3,000 Falashmura at a transit camp in the city of Gundar are eligible to immigrate to Israel, the daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

The report quoted sources close to Interior Minister Eli Yishai as saying that all 8,700 Falashmura there will be examined eventually.

According to the report, the decision signals a sharp reversal of policy from the previous government, which sought to end immigration from Ethiopia.

The report said that the delegates to Ethiopia have been authorized to examine Falashmura eligibility according to two criteria: Connection to Beta Israel — the ethnic group of Ethiopian Jews, and connection to relatives living in Israel.

The task is aimed to be completed by September.

The Falashmura predicament surfaced after Operation Moses, which brought some 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the 1980s. Demands then began for Israel to absorb the Falashmura, Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity or have other claims to Judaism. Some 26,000 Falashmura have since come to Israel and converted to Orthodox Judaism, making them eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return.

The Law of Return, approved by the Knesset in 1950, allows Jews and those with Jewish parents or grandparents, and spouses of the aforementioned, to settle in Israel and gain citizenship.

In 2005, the government ceased all Falashmura immigration, claiming a continuation of the existing policy will result in the immigration of individuals completely unconnected to Judaism. However, immigration continued, in such frameworks as humanitarian cases and family reunification.

Yishai, chairman of ultra-Orthodox Shas party, has upheld a more flexible approach to Falashmura immigration than his predecessor, Meir Sheetrit of centrist Kadima party.

Sheetrit attacked Yishai’s decision saying, “This is a grave danger. Most experts believe the Falashmura are not Jews or sons of Jews, and some of them go on being Christian even in Israel.�