After almost a year, Operation Tzur Yisrael to bring some 3,000 close relatives of Ethiopian immigrants to Israel is poised to resume, and the immigrants are packed and waiting in transit camps in Gondar and Addis Ababa.
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Relatives of Ethiopian olim waiting to board a plane to Israel include Zemane, 29, and his wife, 23, who have been waiting in Gondar for 17 years to be allowed to leave for Israel. The couple have three children, ages eight, three and one. Zemane's parents and siblings living in Israel. His mother arrived 10 years ago.
"I've only spoken to my mother on the phone. She's never met my three children. I want to be with my family," he says.
Another family includes Tashagar, 63 and his wife, Elmito, 60, and their seven children. They talked about how hard it is to have so many children and rent an apartment in Gondar. Elmito said she feared one of her children would have a family of their own in Gondar and stay behind, and so all of her children have remained single.
Two of the couple's daughters made aliyah 20 years ago, and the parents are eager to meet them and their children.
"We are sad it took so long. Sometimes, we're angry," Negosa, one of their children, says. "But my parents are happy their daughters arrived in Israel, because it gave them opportunities, and we prayed we would have the same opportunity, and now it's come."
The family says they have no possessions of sentimental value they will be taking to Israel, "just clothes and food."
The first flight in the latest leg of the operation is scheduled to land in Israel on Wednesday. The operation is being carried out by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews in conjunction with the Aliyah and Integration Ministry under Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata.
World Zionist Organization chairman Yaakov Hagoel said, "Thousands of new olim from Ethiopia will have a chance to fulfill their dream and reunite with their loved ones."
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