Another group of 129 Falash Mora will arrive here from Ethiopia shortly, after being approved for immigration by senior officials of Israel’s Interior Ministry who visited the capital of Addis Ababa earlier this month.
The delegation, led by David Efrati, head of the population registrar at the Interior Ministry, visited Ethiopia to implement the Israeli government’s decision earlier this year to allow the immigration of some of the Falash Mora, Ethiopians whose ancestors converted from Judaism to Christianity.
Israel’s Cabinet has decided that only those Falash Mora with certain relatives of their immediate family already in Israel will be given the right to make aliyah.
Some Falash Mora also are able to qualify as immigrants on the basis of the Law of Return by proving their own Jewishness or that of their parents or grandparents.
Other Falash Mora come here on the basis of the less-beneficial Law of Naturalization, which does not grant the newcomer the same privileges given to new immigrants under the Law of Return.
Some 33 of the new group of 129 immigrants will come under the Law of Return.
The group is scheduled to arrive here within a few weeks, according to Jewish Agency officials.
Representatives of the Falash Mora in Israel expressed disappointment with the small number of potential immigrants, saying they were but a “drop in a barrel” of those who want to come here.
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