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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Ethiopian leader Abiy Ahmed on Friday, informing him of his plans to airlift 2,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
“I informed Prime Minister Abiy that I intend to immediately bring in some 2,000 people from Addis Ababa and Gondar, as part of our commitment to continue the Aliya of the Jews in Israel,” Netanyahu tweeted.
Netanyahu said Abiy replied that there was no impediment to the move and that it “symbolizes the special relationship between the peoples.”
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Netanyahu said Abiy also congratulated him on the recent normalization agreements signed between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, and the two also discussed deepening Israel’s agricultural assistance to Ethiopia.
Netanyahu said Thursday that the cabinet will vote next week on the planned airlift.
The proposal allocates NIS 370 million ($ 109 million) for mass immigration, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
“Half a year ago, I promised to bring the rest of the Jews from Ethiopia [to Israel]”Netanyahu said in a statement from his office. Monday’s cabinet vote is a stepping stone “on the way to bringing the rest,” he added. “We have also funded NIS 80 million for community activities. We honor our commitments. ”
The announcement came days after a prominent anti-Netanyahu protester was heard on video making a racially charged comment to a police officer of Ethiopian descent.
Likud Deputy Minister of Public Security Gadi Yevarkan, who is Ethiopian-Israeli, thanked the prime minister for the plan, while targeting Amir Haskel, the leader of the Ein Matzav protest group.
Knesset member Gadi Yevarkan during a special plenary session to discuss the country’s failure to adequately absorb Ethiopian Jews, at the Knesset on July 15, 2019 (Noam Rivkin Fentonl / Flash90)
“Despite the racist calls we are hearing, here is the answer. The best answer is the continued immigration of Ethiopian Jews, and certainly not to sponsor them and tell them to thank everyone who had some kind of … [marginal] role in their immigration, ”Yevarkan said.
Haskel faced criticism after a video surfaced Tuesday of him being arrested outside the prime minister’s residence in August, telling an Ethiopian-born policewoman: “I brought your parents here from Ethiopia, aren’t you ashamed? of yourself? “
Israel’s first cabinet member of Ethiopian descent, Immigration Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata, has been lobbying the government to rescue as many people from the Jewish community as possible in light of reports that Up to 14,000 Ethiopians hoping to immigrate to Israel are facing a humanitarian disaster related to the coronavirus.
Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata welcomes new immigrants to Israel on August 3, 2020 (Shlomi Amsalem).
Government policy on the immigration of Ethiopian Jews in recent years has been littered with abandoned commitments.
In 2013, the Jewish Agency declared the end of Ethiopian aliyah, prompting protests from Ethiopian lawmakers and community members in Israel.
In November 2015, the government made a decision to airlift “the last of the community” waiting in Addis Ababa and Gondar to Israel within five years.
Since that decision, however, only 2,257 Ethiopians have been brought in, on dribbles and monotonous, according to figures from the Jewish Agency.
Severe malnutrition is rampant in the community, and while COVID-19 cases have not yet been reported among them, the disease is spreading in Ethiopia, with more than 80,000 cases and 1,255 deaths.
Members of the Falash Mura community gather with their families at Ben Gurion Airport on the outskirts of Tel Aviv on February 4, 2019 (Tomer Neuberg / Flash90).
On August 19, Tamano-Shata of the Blue and White Party submitted a NIS 1.3 billion ($ 382.6 million) scheme to the Knesset Immigration Committee to bring 8,000 Ethiopians to Israel and close the camps in Gondar and Addis Ababa forever.
He announced last month that the government would airlift 2,000 Ethiopian Jews, prompting mixed reactions from activists campaigning for everyone to move to Israel.
About 9,000 of potential immigrants have been waiting 15 years or more to emigrate, local activists say. About a quarter of that number, located in the capital Addis Ababa, has been waiting for more than 20 years, they say, while the rest, in the city of Gondar, have been holding out for 15 to 20 years.
Members of the Falash Mura community arrive at the immigration offices at Ben Gurion Airport on February 4, 2019 (Tomer Neuberg / Flash90).
The coronavirus has hit the group economically very hard, various sources have reported to The Times of Israel. Work has dried up and food is scarce, with prices rising between 35% and 50%; Families in Israel who previously sent money to their relatives have money problems due to their own COVID-19-related problems, and philanthropic organizations have less capacity to collect donations due to the pandemic.
About 140,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel today, a tiny minority in a country of nearly 9 million. Some 22,000 were flown to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1991, mainly from the Beta Israel community.
While Ethiopian Jewish immigrants from the Beta Israel community are recognized as fully Jewish, immigrants from Ethiopia who belong to the smaller Falash Mura community must undergo an Orthodox conversion after immigrating. The Falash Mura are Ethiopian Jews whose ancestors converted to Christianity, often under duress, generations ago. Some 30,000 of them have immigrated to Israel since 1997, according to Netanyahu’s office.
Because the Interior Ministry does not consider the Falash Mura to be Jewish, they cannot immigrate under the Law of Return and therefore must obtain special permission from the government to move to Israel.
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