The Israeli government’s decision to approve the immigration of hundreds of Ethiopian Jews will not solve the plight of thousands remaining in camps in dire conditions in the African country, an Israeli parliamentarian has said. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that 1,000 members of the Falash Mura community living in Ethiopia would be brought to Israel. Avraham Neguise, a member of Israeli parliament in the ruling Likud party who was himself born in Ethiopia, called it a “burning issue” for Ethiopian Jews, who number over 144,000 in Israel as of the end of 2016. The name Falash Mura refers to members of Ethiopian Jewry who were either forcibly converted to Christianity or did so under pressure from Christian missionaries in the 19th and 20th centuries. Since Israel’s establishment in 1948, roughly 95,000 Beta Israel have made Aliyah – the term used to denote Jewish immigration from the Diaspora to the Land of Israel.

Source: Ethiopian News September 22, 2018 22:07 UTC