The government on Sunday approved a plan presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring another 400 members of Ethiopia's Falash Mura community to Israel.
Unlike Ethiopian Jews, whom Israel began airlifting out of Ethiopia in the 1980s after the Chief Rabbinate accepted that they were full-fledged Jews and many of whom live observant Jewish lifestyles in Israel, the Falash Mura are Christians who claim distant Jewish lineage. Therefore, their eligibility to make aliyah has been the subject of much debate and compromise.
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Many Ethiopian Jews and Falash Mura in Israel are campaigning to persuade the government to allow their Falash Mura relatives into the country so their families can be reunited.
"I am proud of the fact that as prime minister, I have had the privilege of bringing thousands of our brothers and sisters from Ethiopia, and we intend – of course – to continue doing this," Netanyahu said. "This is an additional step. We are also committed to the full integration of members of the community into Israeli society. We are working for this without respite and we will continue to do so.
"Of course, we will continue to work in the country with full force against expressions of racism, everywhere, and certainly in every part of the government and the public. We are against this; we truly understand the feelings of the sons and daughters of the community. From time to time, every few weeks, I have convened here a meeting of government ministers to deal with all needs but first of all this basic need – to understand how they feel, to change the public approach and to truly take a very clear stand against all expressions of racism in general and against our brothers and sisters in particular."
Immigration Absorption Minister Yoav Galant noted that "around 40 years ago, as a commando, I had the privilege of helping to bring the first Ethiopian olim from the Sudanese coast. Today, as Aliyah and Absorption Minister, we are working to bring the remaining Falash Mura, who have been waiting in Ethiopia, due to the elections process, for a year already. There are 398 people waiting for nothing in Addis Ababa and Gondar when they could be sitting today in absorption centers in the State of Israel.
"Israel has a moral debt to the members of the Ethiopian community, who serve in the IDF and contribute in all aspects of life, to unite with their family members who have been left behind. I commend the Prime Minister for leading this effort."
