Hundreds of Ethiopian immigrants demonstrated outside the Prime Minister’s Office Sunday on behalf of the thousands of Jews unable to leave Ethiopia.
They demanded the release of 37 Jews reportedly imprisoned there for trying to organize immigration to Israel. Baruch Tegenya, a spokesman for the demonstrators, told reporters the 37 were arrested for distributing relief funds to needy Jewish families in Ethiopia.
He likened them to the “Prisoners of Zion” in the Soviet Union, and contended that if the Israel government can exert pressure on their behalf, it can do so also for Jews imprisoned in Ethiopia. He also said there are about 1,500 Ethiopian children in Israel without families.
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