Activists step up campaign to bring remaining Falash Mura

Campaign groups and activists for bringing the remainder of the Falash Mura community, descendants of Jews, from Ethiopia to Israel, are stepping up their efforts once again following several promises made by the prime minister before the elections.

There currently remain approximately 7,500 members of the community in Addis Ababa and Gondar, many of whom have been stuck there for many years awaiting immigration to Israel.

In October 2018, the government approved a decision to bring 1,000 members of the community to Israel in 2019, but only 600 came.

Just before the March 2020 election and seeking the votes of the Ethiopian-Jewish community in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to bring the remaining 400 people of the original 2019 quota, and approximately 230 have arrived since then.

But as well as promising the remainder of the 2019 quota, Netanyahu also made the bold pledge to fulfill the terms of government decision 716 of 2015 to bring all remaining members of the Falash Mura community to Israel by the end of 2020.

Netanyahu even met with Keissim and other Ethiopian communal leaders in February to promise that he would do so and told them that the requisite budgetary funds to bring the rest of the community and absorb them were available.

Now after a government has been formed and as the state budget is currently being drawn up, the campaign groups are anxious to ensure that the requisite funds are allocated for the immigration of those people.

In one initiative, people from the Ethiopian-Israeli community with relatives still in Ethiopia are posting stories of how their loved ones got left behind during the various mass-immigrations that have taken place.

Cheru Workenh, 22, and a combat soldier in the IDF’s Nahal Brigade, put on a post on Facebook on Sunday, noting that he has three siblings still in Ethiopia, and calling on Netanyahu to fulfill his election promises.

“My only wish is that the state will not turn its back on me and will allow me to reunite with my siblings and other family members and allow them to fulfill their Zionist dream,” wrote Workenh, adding that his parents were greatly pained by the fact that three of their children remain in Ethiopia.

“All my family observes the religious commandments and tradition… They have been waiting for 13 years to come to Israel and unite with us and with our people,” he continued.

Kassahun Shiferaw, a social activist, pointed out on Monday that these promises had been made ahead of the election and that campaigners, the community and its leadership now expect these promises should be honored.

“Our demands are that the issue of the aliyah of the remaining community in Ethiopia be included in the state budget, with a timeline for bringing the remainder to Israel swiftly,” said Shiferaw.

“The community will not sit in silence if the promises are not fulfilled.”

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a question as to whether specific budget allocations are being included in the forthcoming state budget for the immigration and absorption of members of the Falash Mura community

Sources close to the Immigration and Absorption Ministry said that there are as yet no concrete plans to bring the remaining 170 people of the 2019 quota.

The source said however that the issue of the budgetary requirements for a possible increase in immigration in general has been raised in budget discussions.

The Falash Mura do not have the right to citizenship under the Law of Return since their ancestors converted, under duress, to Christianity. Instead they are granted citizenship under the Law of Entry at the discretion of the Interior Minister, mostly for family reunification principles.

Those who remain in Ethiopia and are paternally and not maternally descended from Jews are required to convert to Judaism upon entry into Israel.