Despite government approval, still no funds for Ethiopian immigration

The 2019 budget approved by the Knesset last Thursday does not include funds for airlifting Ethiopian Jews to Israel, despite a government decision to bring approximately 1,000 Ethiopians Jews per year.

Similar budget delays have plagued Ethiopian Jewish immigration in recent years, and last year there was a six-month hiatus in the flights for Ethiopian Jewish immigrants.

“I am asking for the government to renew the aliyah [immigration to Israel] process immediately,” demanded MK Avraham Neguise (Likud). “Our brothers and sisters are in very difficult situations. Most of the people waiting have first-degree relatives in Israel.”

Last month, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that the Interior Ministry was preparing the list of 1,000 Ethiopian Jews approved for immigration in 2018.

But the state budget did not include the approximately NIS 200 million ($57 million) needed to absorb the 1,300 immigrants planned to arrive over the year.

Women in Gondar, Ethiopia, check flour in preparation for making matzah for the Passover holiday on March 21, 2018. (courtesy)

The Jews left behind in Ethiopia are classified as Falashmura, a term for people whose ancestors converted to Christianity, often under duress, generations ago.

Because the Interior Ministry does not consider the Falashmura to be Jewish, they cannot immigrate under the Law of Return and therefore must get special permission from the government to move to Israel. Critics fear that tens of thousands of Ethiopians could claim eligibility under the process.

Neguise is in negotiations with the Prime Minister’s Office and hopes to secure funding at a special cabinet meeting, though he expressed frustration that the Ethiopian immigration issue needs to be advocated each year anew in order to receive the budget. A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu had instructed that the issues be raised at the next meeting of the Ministerial Committee on the Integration of Israeli Citizens of Ethiopian Descent, but no date has been set for a meeting.

Members of Gondar’s Jewish community attend gathering hosted by a cross-party delegation of Knesset members to Ethiopia, March 3, 2017. (Courtesy)

There are approximately 8,000 Jews in Ethiopia who are waiting to emigrate, 80 percent of whom have first-degree relatives in Israel. In 2018, the list of approved immigrants focused on approximately 1,000 parents who have children in Israel.

“The government of Israel must dry the tears of these parents, of their sons and daughters, of their sisters and brothers, and immediately stop this discriminatory policy,” said Neguise.

Activists have accused the Interior Ministry of racism and inefficiency for its handling of the Ethiopian immigration process.

Although the government unanimously approved the immigration of all the remaining Jews from Ethiopia in November 2015, the decision faltered three months later when the Prime Minister’s Office refused to implement the program because the NIS 1 billion ($284 million) it said was needed to fund the absorption process was not in the state budget over five years, approximately NIS 200 million per year.