'Moving Moment': Israel Ends Ethiopian Repatriation Program
August 30, 2013 - 01:01 PM
Some 450 Jews from Ethiopia landed in Israel on Wednesday, the last arrivals
in a program to relocate the community to the Holy Land. The campaign, which
lasted for nearly thirty years, has been plagued by controversy.
Natan Sharansky described it as a "moving historical moment." The head of
the Jewish Agency for Israel -- the body tasked with overseeing immigration
-- on Wednesday accompanied the last group of Ethiopian Jews on their
journey to the Holy Land. Some 450 so-called "Falashas" flew to an airport
near Tel Aviv in two chartered flights.
65 years after the establishment of the Israeli nation state, the country
has concluded its mass repatriation program for Ethiopian Jews. The arrival
of the group means that the religious minority's 3000-year history is
finally coming full circle, said Sharansky, according to the German news
agency DPA.
Over the last three decades, about 100,000 Jews have been repatriated from
the East African country to Israel. The program began with three operations
dubbed "Moses" (1984), "Joshua" (1985) and "Solomon" (1991-1992).
After these were completed, the operation came to a prolonged standstill due
to a political altercation about whether the Falash Mura -- who were forced
to convert to Christianity in the 18th and 19th century, but maintained
their Jewish rituals -- should be entitled to Israeli citizenship.
Discrimination Rife
Although some ultra-Orthodox Rabbis still refuse to recognize the group's
status as Jews, the Israeli government organized a further repatriation
effort -- dubbed "Operation Dove Wing" -- in November 2010. Last October,
the first of a total of 93 chartered flights arrived in the country. Before
leaving Ethiopia, the Falah Mura had spent several years in transit camps in
the nothern city of Gondar being prepared for Israeli life.
Around 500 protestors gathered in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's official residence on Wednesday. Their aim was to expand the
repatriation program to include a further 5,000 Ethiopians who hadn't been
acknowledged as practicing Jews, and therefore hadn't qualified for
Operation Dove Wing. The Israeli government has introduced a rule whereby
Ethiopians wanting to return to the Holy Land are only able to do so by
applying on an individual basis.
The black minority group often faces discrimination in Israel. In 1996, the
country's daily Maariv newspaper revealed that Magen David Adom -- the
country's bloodbank service -- had been destroying all blood samples
provided by Ethiopian Jews. Last year, the Israeli broadcaster Channel 2
revealed that 120 landlords in the southern town of Kiryat Malakhi had
agreed not to rent out or sell their houses and apartments to members of the
African minority.
Many Ethiopian migrants live in low income areas and illegal settlements.
Human rights organizations have accused the Israeli government of forcibly
sterilizing members of the minority group. The authorities have denied the
allegations.