08 September 2006
Israel’s Finance Ministry is proposing substantial cuts to the immigration of Ethiopian Jews (Falash Mura) next year as part of widespread cut-back in public spending following Israel’s war in Lebanon, JTA reports. The plan is part of Israel’s 2007 budget and would halve the number of Ethiopian immigrants brought to Israel per month, to 150 from the current rate of 300. If adopted, the change would represent a major setback to US backers of Ethiopian aliyah, who launched a US$ 100 million campaign last year designed in part to pressure the government to increase the rate of Ethiopian immigration. Israel’s Cabinet decided in March 2005 to double the rate of Ethiopian immigration to 600 people per month, but the decision was never implemented. “I hope the Jewish leaders overseas will understand this breaks all the rules, all the agreements, all the understandings,” said Shlomo Molla, an Ethiopian-Israeli politician and head of the World Zionist Organization’s department of Zionist issues. “We will not let this happen. It is a scandal.” There are still an estimated 12,000 Falash Mura in Ethiopia, most of them living in the shantytowns of Gondar and Addis Ababa.
