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64 New Ethiopian Immigrants Arrive In Israel, 1,236 More Expected This Year

64 New Ethiopian Immigrants Arrive In Israel, 1,236 More Expected This Year

After a three-year hiatus, Israel opened its arms Monday to Ethiopian immigrants with 64 new members of the Falash Mura community arriving at Ben Gurion Airport in an emotional welcoming ceremony.

Family members waved Israeli flags and sang as they greeted arriving loved ones from Ethiopia. For many, it was their first reunion in more than a decade.

The Israeli government agreed in November 2015 to bring 9,000 more Ethiopian immigrants to Israel within five years. However, the prime minister’s Office suspended action for more than seven months. Immigration from Ethiopia resumed Monday, YNet reported.

Two members of the Israeli Knesset — David “Dudu” Amsalem and Avraham Neguise –are credited with helping engineer the resumption of Ethiopian immigration. They pressured the government to bring 1,300 immigrants to Israel out of the planned 9,000 waiting in transit camps in Addis Ababa and Gondar, YNet reported. The 64 who arrived Monday are the first to arrive.

The government announced an end to immigration from Ethiopia in 2013. Activities to restart Ethiopian immigration included boycotting the coalition government for months, Times of Israel reported.

The fate of the remaining Falash Mura community is uncertain due to budget constraints. With Ethiopia’s recent state of emergency over unstable security, public figures and activists have called in recent weeks to bring the rest of the community to Israel.

Falash Mura is the name given to those of the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia and Eritrea forced to convert to Christianity during the 19th and 20th centuries.

At the end of 2013, 135,500 Israelis of Ethiopian origin were living in Israel. About 85,900 were born in Ethiopia and 49,600 were born in Israel, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.

Ethiopians immigrated to Israel in two waves of mass migration assisted by the Israeli government: Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991).

The Israeli treasury estimates it will cost about 2 billion shekels ($510 million) over five years to bring 8,000 to 9,000 Falasha – Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity under pressure – to Israel, HaAretz reported.

Knesset member Neguise, who immigrated from Ethiopia in 1985, welcomed new immigrants at Ben Gurion Airport. “I don’t forget those who still have family waiting,” he said, according to Jerusalem Post.

“When I came here 31 years ago I was in the same situation you are in now,” Neguise told the new immigrants. “With some effort, I managed to integrate in society, to get an education and to become a legislator. I believe that every one of you can also integrate and advance in Israel through personal efforts and equal opportunities.”

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said the arrival of the new immigrants is “the last stages of a historic aliya (immigration) that began with the covert operations Moses and Solomon.” He promised that the rest of their relatives would be united with them in Israel and that they would be supported as they settled into Israel, according to Jerusalem Post.

The new olim were headed to Safed, where they will begin their new lives in Israel.

Ethiopian immigrants get additional benefits not afforded to other immigrants, including housing allowances for at least two years in an absorption center and a $105,000 grant to buy an apartment, Times of Israel reported.

Israel is often accused of racism against Ethiopian immigrants. The government’s decision to bring them to Israel despite the fact that they are not considered Jewish under Israel’s Law of Return illustrates the country’s commitment to Ethiopian immigrants, Sharansky said.

In 1950, Israel’s Knesset passed a law giving every Jew the right to immigrate to Israel. The law has since been amended to deny criminals the right, and later to allow citizenship not only to Jews, but also to their non-Jewish descendants — children, grandchildren, spouses, and non-Jewish spouses of their children and grandchildren, according to the JewishAgency.org.

This ensured that families would not be broken up, but also promised a safe haven in Israel for non-Jews persecuted for their Jewish roots:

With the inception of the State of Israel, two thousand years of wandering were officially over. Since then, Jews have been entitled to simply show up and request to be Israeli citizens, assuming they posed no imminent danger to public health, state security, or the Jewish people as a whole. Essentially, all Jews everywhere are Israeli citizens by right.