Israel to approve immigration for 1,000 Ethiopian Jews
Israel is home to approximately 144,000 Jews of Ethiopian descent, the majority of whom immigrated to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Israeli government announced that it agreed to accept 1,000 Ethiopian Jews, a fraction of the nation’s 8,000 Jews, who activists are hoping can all move to Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a special committee had agreed to allow community members who already have children in Israel to immigrate. It was not clear what will happen to the remaining 7,000 people.
The 8,000 are descendants of Ethiopian Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity around a century ago, though many of them practice Judaism. Israel doesn’t consider them Jewish under strict religious law, meaning their immigration requires special approval. The Israeli government views bringing them to Israel as an act of family reunification rather than aliyah, or immigration to Israel from the Jewish diaspora.
