Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held a special meeting on Monday
21 Shevat to discuss the aliya of the Bnei Falashmura
following demonstrations and legal and party pressure. At the
conclusion of the meeting Sharon announced he had decided to
bring all of the Bnei Falashmura to Israel within three years
and to double the number of Falashmura immigrants every
month.
The decision was also influenced by a High Court decision not
to rule on an appeal demanding accelerated immigration of the
Falashmura.
Two thousand relatives of the Falashmura demonstrated outside
of the Prime Minister's Office while the meeting was taking
place. Communal leaders praised the Prime Minister's decision
but protested against further aliya quotas, which they claim
stem from "racist motivations."
"While children are dying of starvation in Ethiopia the
government waited for four months before doubling the aliya
rate," they complained. The protesters' campaign began when
Immigration Absorption Minister T. Livni said, "The State
cannot properly absorb the Bnei Falashmura living in Ethiopia
because of budget problems."
At the meeting, attended by Interior Minister Ophir Pines,
Justice and Immigrant Absorption Minister T. Livni, Finance
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai
Meridor, it was also decided to place the transit camps where
15,000 Ethiopians are now waiting into the hands of the
Jewish Agency.
The decision set into motion a previous government decision
made two years ago and "frozen," according to which, "the
Interior Ministry and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel would
immediately begin to complete checking the origins of those
waiting for permission to come to Israel in the transit camps
in Addis Ababa and Gundar in order to verify their origin
over the preceding generations." The government charged a
special ministerial committee with the task of inquiring into
the activities required and the source of funding to execute
the decision. Yet the decision was "frozen" due to opposition
by Ethiopian immigrants already in Israel who claimed that
the Bnei Falashmura are Christians masquerading as Jews, and
Ethiopian Jews do not even marry them.
Government officials noted this aliya would be never-ending
since every month more Ethiopians enter the transit camps,
claiming they are Jews. According to the recent decision
starting in June of this year the number of Ethiopian
immigrants would be doubled from 300 to 600 per month. Sharon
has given the Ministers of the Interior, Absorption, Finance
and Foreign Affairs as well as the Jewish Agency three months
to prepare a detailed, comprehensive plan to take in the Bnei
Falashmura according to the eligibility list approved by the
Interior Ministry.
Legal figures say the Bnei Falashmura in Ethiopia are not
eligible to immigrate based on the Law of Return since their
great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents converted to
Christianity. This group numbering 17,000 has remained
outsiders and not even been fully assimilated into Christian
society. After abandoning their homes and property in their
villages a few years ago, they have been waiting for years
under extremely severe conditions in transit camps in Addis
Ababa and Gundar for entry visas to Israel. Another 4,000
Bnei Falashmura remain in the villages.
In response to the decision, Absorption Minister T. Livni
said, "I welcome the arrival of every immigrant. I am glad
this will be done with the assistance of the Finance Ministry
and subject to suitable absorption [conditions] for
immigrants."
Interior Minister Ophir Pines set three conditions for the
plan to double the quota on Falashmura immigration: 1) that
the new immigrants be absorbed only in centrally located
cities and established towns, 2) that the Interior Ministry
receive special funding earmarked for checking the
eligibility of the Bnei Falashmura to immigrate and 3) that
the new immigrants' citizenship not be contingent on
conversion but be granted immediately upon immigration.
"We welcome the decision," said spokesmen for the Jewish
Agency. "This is a Zionist decision of the first degree and
spares many people waiting to make aliya, primarily children
and youths, from human suffering."
The spokesman for Vaad HaRabbonim LeInyonei Giyur, founded by
HaRav Chaim Kreiswirth zt"l, told Yated Ne'eman
that according to maranan verabonon, since the origins
of the Bnei Falashmura are in doubt and cannot be verified,
they must undergo a full conversion process (giyur
misofeik), including fully accepting the yoke of mitzvas.
Since they have assimilated and were severed from other Jews
for hundreds of years their Jewish status is unclear and they
should not be brought to Eretz Yisroel before the rabbinical
establishment here, in cooperation with the government,
completes arrangements for the conversion process.
The Vaad spokesman also said that in his view it remains very
doubtful that the Chief Rabbinate has the ability to carry
this out properly since the Conversion Authority today is in
the hands of individuals who conduct conversions without
ensuring that the candidate has a genuine intention of
keeping mitzvas.
According to media reports from nine years ago, he added,
Ethiopian immigrants reached an agreement with the Chief
Rabbinate — in opposition to the opinion of gedolei
Yisroel — that they could register for marriage at
the Rabbinate without having to undergo conversion.
