LOD: Nearly 100 Ethiopian Jews landed in Israel yesterday in the first wave of new immigration since the government said last year it would let some of the 8000 remaining Jewish community members join relatives in Israel.
Local Ethiopian community members welcomed the newcomers after years of delays.
Israel recognises the community’s Jewish roots but does not consider them fully Jewish. They require special approval to immigrate which is not easy to obtain.
Atersau Baiye, 61, said he had been waiting for more than 12 years to come to Israel and be reunited with his daughter, who lives in Tel Aviv.
“I am very happy to be here and excited to see my daughter, but it’s a mixed feeling,” he said.
Mr Baiye said that although he migrated with his wife and six young children, he was forced to leave two adult children behind in Ethiopia who were not eligible to migrate.
“I don’t know if we will see them again,” he said.
Alisa Bodner, spokeswoman for an Ethiopian-Jewish activist group, said she was “far from satisfied” by the slow trickle of Ethiopian immigration, long stalled despite government promises to bring all remaining members of the community to Israel.
“This is a continuation of the discriminatory practices against Ethiopian-Israelis from this current government,” she said.
Read the article in The Australian (AP).
[Editor: The headline on this story raised the ire of Honest Reporting DownUnder]