Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata announced on Thursday morning that she has formulated a plan to bring the approximately 8,000 remaining members of the Falash Mura community in Ethiopia to Israel, according to Army Radio.The plan, which is yet to be fully published, was given to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternative Prime Minister Benny Gantz last week for their review, and will soon be brought to the cabinet for its approval.Interior Minister Arye Deri, who has the ultimate say over the immigration of the Falash Mura, has yet to give his explicit backing to the plan. A spokesman for the minister has yet to respond to a request for comment on the issue.The plan would allow 4,000 members of the Jewish community in Ethiopia to make aliyah before the end of 2020, with another two rounds of aliyah following that would effectively complete Ethiopian aliyah, which has been a struggle for decades.Such a project would require a special budget because unlike other aliyah projects, aliyah from the Falash Mura community requires more social services and general support. The Ethiopian community speaks Amharic and generally does not have access to modern amenities.The Falash Mura are descendants of the Ethiopian Jewish community, but do not have the right to citizenship under the Law of Return, since their ancestors converted, under duress, to Christianity.They are granted citizenship under the Law of Entry on the consideration of the interior minister, on the basis of family reunification principles, and they undergo Jewish conversion once in Israel.According to experts on the Falash Mura community, the remaining members of the community are patrilineal descendants of Jews, and were not included in the ruling of Shlomo Amar, former chief rabbi, who ruled that those of matrilineal descent should be brought to Israel.

Source: Ethiopian News August 13, 2020 05:34 UTC