JERUSALEM, Israel
Israel's government on Sunday approved the immigration of several thousand Jews from war-torn Ethiopia, some of whom have waited for decades to join their relatives in Israel.
The decision took a step toward resolving an
issue that has long complicated the government's relations with the country's
Ethiopian community. Some 140,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel. Community
leaders estimate that roughly 6,000 others remain behind in Ethiopia.
Although the families are of Jewish descent and
many are practicing Jews, Israel does not consider them Jewish under religious
law. Instead, they have been fighting to enter the country under a
family-unification program that requires special government approval.
Community activists have accused the government
of dragging its feet in implementing a 2015 decision to bring all remaining
Ethiopians of Jewish lineage to Israel within five years.
Under Sunday's decision, an estimated 3,000
people will be eligible to move to Israel. They include parents, children and
siblings of relatives already in Israel, as well as orphans whose parents were
in Israel when they died.
"Today we are correcting an ongoing
injustice," said Pnina Tamano Shata, the country's minister for
Immigration and herself an Ethiopian immigrant. She said the program was a
response to people who have waited "too many years to come to Israel with
their families" and to resolve a "painful issue."
In a joint statement with Israel's Interior
minister, she said the decision came in part as a response to the precarious
security situation in Ethiopia, where tens of thousands of people have been
killed over the past year in fighting between the government and Tigray forces.
It was not immediately clear when the airlift
would begin. The government appointed a special project coordinator to oversee
the effort. Kasaw Shiferaw, chairman of the group Activists for the Immigration
of Ethiopian Jews, welcomed Sunday's decision but said there was still a long
way to go.
"On one hand, this decision makes me
happy. Three thousand people are realizing a dream and uniting with their
families," he said.
"But it's not a final resolution.
Thousands are still waiting in camps, some for more than 25 years. We expect
the government to bring all of them," he said.
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