July 2, 2008

By Anshel Pfeffer

The Jewish Agency presented the Prime Minister's Office with a report a few days ago showing that all the Falashmura deemed eligible for aliyah in 1999 have either arrived in Israel or have been declared ineligible by the Interior Ministry.

About 2,000 people on the 1999 list were never checked for eligibility because no request was ever made to bring them to Israel.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered his office to conduct a reexamination of the Falashmura issue, and the check is underway. According to a 2005 cabinet decision, the aliyah of all the Falashmura from Ethiopia was supposed to have been completed two months ago, but because of Olmert's request, the Jewish Agency has not yet finished its work in Ethiopia, and the last 290 people are still waiting to come to Israel. The Jewish organizations acting on behalf of the Falashmura say there are another 8,700 people in Gondar in northern Ethiopia whose eligibility to immigrate to Israel has yet to be determined.

Olmert ordered the reexamination of the Falashmura issue under pressure from Shas and Jewish organizations.

The Falashmura, descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, want to return to Judaism and come to Israel. After they were not allowed to immigrate in the 1991 Operation Solomon airlift, the Falashmura and various Jewish organizations have put pressure on the Israeli government to take in the prospective immigrants.

The 1999 census of eligible Falashmura was held as a result. The census determined that there were 28,951 eligible in three locations in Addis Ababa, Gondar and in a number of other scattered villages.

Falashmura advocates say the Jewish Agency and Interior Ministry ignored another list of 11,376 Falashmura in villages. They also say the 8,700 in Gondar meet Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar's criteria for aliyah, but the Interior Ministry refuses to examine their eligibility.