ETHIOPIAN-ISRAELI KESSIM celebrate the Sigd holiday in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv. (photo credit:MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
“They must be brought to Israel and reunited with their families. They are undivided part of our community,” says MK Abraham Naguise.
The Interior Ministry is pushing for the government to resume facilitating Ethiopian immigration, which ceased in 2013, according to a leaked draft proposal published in the Israeli media on Thursday.
According to the document, which was drawn up by the Interior Ministry and published by Yediot Aharonot, some 9,000 Ethiopians living in camps in the cities of Addis Ababa and Gondar will become eligible to become Israeli citizens and have their arrival facilitated by the Jewish Agency.
“The main criteria to receive an entry permit to Israel, in accordance with the decisions of the previous governments, were that [the olim] are descended from Ethiopian Jews on their mothers' side, and that they appear on one of the lists attached to the government decisions in question," the proposal cited by Yediot stated.
"Upon completing these government decisions, it turns out that many families from the Ethiopian community were split up, some members are in Israel, while others remain in Ethiopia,” it added.
The proposal further noted that the prospective immigrants had left their homes years ago to congregate near aliya centers set up by the Jewish Agency and that many of them are first-degree relatives of Ethiopians living in Israel who “have been maintaining a Jewish lifestyle.”
If accepted, any Ethiopian who moved to Gondar or Addis Ababa after January 2013, is willing to convert in Israel and has relatives here who can apply for his acceptance, will be eligible to move.
Two years ago, the government and Jewish Agency celebrated the “end” of Ethiopian aliya with an official ceremony welcoming two planeloads of immigrants at Ben-Gurion Airport.
At the time, Ethiopian activist Abraham Naguise, now an MK with the Likud party, organized a protest “oppose the closing of aliya from Ethiopia while there are still Jews left behind, most of whom have been parted from their brothers, sisters, children and parents who have been living in Israel for many years.”
Proponents of the government’s policy, however, counter-asserted that those who were left were relatives of relatives and ineligible for aliya.
Sources indicate that Naguise has been pushing Interior Minister Silvan Shalom for a declaration on the issue for some time.
“More than 85 percent of [those left behind in Ethiopia] have first-degree families in Israel, parents, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters,” Naguise told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
“They must be brought to Israel and reunited with their families. They are undivided part of our community.”
He recalled a recent trip to Gondar where he witnessed what he described as the difficult conditions facing the prospective Israelis.
“We saw the human tragedy and the Jewish tragedy that half of the family is here and half is there. This situation has to be changed,” he asserted.
Naguise pushed hard for change both within the Knesset and in talks with Shalom, whom he said has been a proponent of further Ethiopian immigration since the Sharon administration.
“I hope and believe that the prime minister and the other ministers will understand this national issue - bringing Jewish people to the Land of Israel is one of the purposes of the government - therefore I hope that they will bring this for a decision soon and we are demanding that this should be on Sunday.”
Should the draft become policy, it would require the government to process applications within a year-and-a-half and to send representatives to Ethiopian within three months, Yediot reported.
“I have tears in my eyes reading about this possible decision,” said former MK Dov Lipman, who opposed the decision to “end” Ethiopian aliya.
“I visited the camps in Ethiopia and looked into the eyes of these families. They so want to be in Israel and in many cases their immediate family members are already here. As an MK, this issue was a high priority of mine and to see the fruits of the battle we waged in practice is very gratifying. I am most happy for the families that will be reunited and that we, as a state, are doing what is right and just.”
During the most recent Jewish Agency Board of Governors meeting in Jerusalem last month, aliya and absorption director Yehuda Scharf stated that pending a government decision on those remaining in Ethiopia, it would be possible to reopen aliya from that country almost immediately.
Both the Interior Ministry nor the Jewish Agency declined to comment.
According to the document, which was drawn up by the Interior Ministry and published by Yediot Aharonot, some 9,000 Ethiopians living in camps in the cities of Addis Ababa and Gondar will become eligible to become Israeli citizens and have their arrival facilitated by the Jewish Agency.
“The main criteria to receive an entry permit to Israel, in accordance with the decisions of the previous governments, were that [the olim] are descended from Ethiopian Jews on their mothers' side, and that they appear on one of the lists attached to the government decisions in question," the proposal cited by Yediot stated.
"Upon completing these government decisions, it turns out that many families from the Ethiopian community were split up, some members are in Israel, while others remain in Ethiopia,” it added.
The proposal further noted that the prospective immigrants had left their homes years ago to congregate near aliya centers set up by the Jewish Agency and that many of them are first-degree relatives of Ethiopians living in Israel who “have been maintaining a Jewish lifestyle.”
If accepted, any Ethiopian who moved to Gondar or Addis Ababa after January 2013, is willing to convert in Israel and has relatives here who can apply for his acceptance, will be eligible to move.
Two years ago, the government and Jewish Agency celebrated the “end” of Ethiopian aliya with an official ceremony welcoming two planeloads of immigrants at Ben-Gurion Airport.
At the time, Ethiopian activist Abraham Naguise, now an MK with the Likud party, organized a protest “oppose the closing of aliya from Ethiopia while there are still Jews left behind, most of whom have been parted from their brothers, sisters, children and parents who have been living in Israel for many years.”
Proponents of the government’s policy, however, counter-asserted that those who were left were relatives of relatives and ineligible for aliya.
Sources indicate that Naguise has been pushing Interior Minister Silvan Shalom for a declaration on the issue for some time.
“More than 85 percent of [those left behind in Ethiopia] have first-degree families in Israel, parents, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters,” Naguise told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
“They must be brought to Israel and reunited with their families. They are undivided part of our community.”
He recalled a recent trip to Gondar where he witnessed what he described as the difficult conditions facing the prospective Israelis.
“We saw the human tragedy and the Jewish tragedy that half of the family is here and half is there. This situation has to be changed,” he asserted.
Naguise pushed hard for change both within the Knesset and in talks with Shalom, whom he said has been a proponent of further Ethiopian immigration since the Sharon administration.
“I hope and believe that the prime minister and the other ministers will understand this national issue - bringing Jewish people to the Land of Israel is one of the purposes of the government - therefore I hope that they will bring this for a decision soon and we are demanding that this should be on Sunday.”
Should the draft become policy, it would require the government to process applications within a year-and-a-half and to send representatives to Ethiopian within three months, Yediot reported.
“I have tears in my eyes reading about this possible decision,” said former MK Dov Lipman, who opposed the decision to “end” Ethiopian aliya.
“I visited the camps in Ethiopia and looked into the eyes of these families. They so want to be in Israel and in many cases their immediate family members are already here. As an MK, this issue was a high priority of mine and to see the fruits of the battle we waged in practice is very gratifying. I am most happy for the families that will be reunited and that we, as a state, are doing what is right and just.”
During the most recent Jewish Agency Board of Governors meeting in Jerusalem last month, aliya and absorption director Yehuda Scharf stated that pending a government decision on those remaining in Ethiopia, it would be possible to reopen aliya from that country almost immediately.
Both the Interior Ministry nor the Jewish Agency declined to comment.
Source: Jpost.com
No comments:
Post a Comment