The Israeli Government are to start moving more than 18,000 Ethiopian Jews to the Middle East, says Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
At the end of a two-day visit to Ethiopia, Mr Shalom said the emigration of the Falasha Mura community would start by the end of next week.

The Falasha Mura are the last remaining Jewish community in Ethiopia and have long been persecuted for their beliefs.

The last mass emigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel was in 1991.


There are around 80,000 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel, many of them airlifted there during times of crisis.

Mr Shalom told reporters: "We would like to bring all Falashas to Israel beginning next week. We believe they should live in Israel."

However, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, speaking alongside Mr Shalom, said a mass migration was not needed as Ethiopians were free to travel wherever they wished.

"The Ethiopian Government has no objection for the Ethiopian Jews to travel to Israel," he said, but added that "in today's Ethiopia, there is no need for an organised intervention as in the 1980s and 1990s".

Disagreement

Mr Shalom visited the northern Gondar region on Wednesday to meet members of the Falasha Mura, many of whom were forced to convert to Christianity.

Israel organised the airlifting of 20,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1984 and another 15,000 members of the community in 1991.

Many were resettled on the volatile West Bank and have suffered from discrimination and high unemployment.

Some Falasha Mura say the Israeli Government has prevented their relatives from joining them.

The authenticity of their Jewishness has also been challenged by religious figures.

The Israeli Government announced last year that 20,000 more Ethiopian Jews could come to Israel under the country's law of return which says that Jews anywhere in the world have the right to Israeli citizenship.

But Ethiopia blocked the move, arguing that a migration en masse was unnecessary when Ethiopians were free to leave the country.



“THE WORLD IS A BRIDGE, CROSS IT, BUT BUILD
NO HOUSE UPON IT!”

I guess this is the Israeli government's attempt to skew demographics in its favour. But it seems in practice that has backfired because because these Ethiopian Jews don't seem to be respected in Israel by the "real" Jews. In other words, they are neither respected by their Jewish "brothers" nor by the Arabs.

let me make it very clear ,
the falasha jews are highly respected and if
we can bring them all home we will do it.
they are really wonderful people, who believe
as i do in the jewish homeland.

LOL, I believe in the jewish home land, I just don't believe it should be in Palestine!LOL

“THE WORLD IS A BRIDGE, CROSS IT, BUT BUILD
NO HOUSE UPON IT!”

thanks for your belief in the jewish
homeland, great answer

anything to stem the demographics flood

« let me make it very clear ,
the falasha jews are highly respected and if
we can bring them all home we will do it.
they are really wonderful people, who believe
as i do in the jewish homeland. »

Well Pindown, I should thank you for helping to reduce my ignorance of the situation. My observation about Ethiopian/Falasha Jews not being respected was based on come of those reports. But I have some more questions for you:

(1) Do these Falashas in general speak and write Hebrew well enough to function well in day-to-day Israeli society?
(2) If they don't, would being fluent in English suffice for them?
(3) How many Falashas are members of the Israeli Parliament, if any?
(4) Are they the ones primarily sent to live in the Palestinian territories?

what about the 60,000 russian jews that are unhappy...
Id feel sorry for yhose ethiopians,they might be better of financially, but socially no.

isreal has a five time better life standard than rusia so they have to be so desperate by intifade to return

they should give lands back otherwayz no peace


Türk özel harekat

the immigrants that come to israel from all
counries face the language problem , and english
helps but it certainly is not enough

there are allready officers in the army , both
men and woman , there are politicians , there
are also lawyers , doctors etc , most are from
the second generation as most imigrant populations.
they are truley great people ,
as far as the russians are concerned 60,000
leaving , no comment not sure , but even 60000
is not many out of 1.3 million taken in by the
jewish homeland , and now we have a lot of french
and argentinian jews on the way , argentinians
due to economics and france due to racism.

lol zionists running wild in africa looking for any jewish blood in uganda, discover a semi nomadic tribe of chimpanzees and babboons bibi netanyahu, gets excited anything helps stem the demographic tide!

if u ncan proove that they are jewish i
will of course except them , the only
thing i am sure , they might not be as
bright as the jews but i am sure they will
be ok with our neighbours, LOL