Israel’s cabinet has approved a scheme to allow into the country nearly 8.000 Ethiopians of Jewish descent over the next three years, BBC online reports Sunday.
Many members of the Falash Mura community are living in poor conditions in transit camps in northern Ethiopia.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israelis had a moral duty to resolve the “complex humanitarian crisis”.
The Falash Mura’s ancestors converted to Christianity under pressure in the 19th Century and so are not eligible to emigrate under Israel’s Law of Return. Thousands who were deemed eligible by Israel have arrived in smaller groups in recent years, but the flow was largely halted in 2008.
Six hundred Faash Mura would arrive as soon as next year, and in the three years that follow 200 would make the move each month, he added.
Ethiopia’s last remaining Jewish community, the Falash Mura trace their roots to the biblical King Solomon but they have largely been unable to prove they are Jewish.
The last mass immigration of Ethiopian jews was in 1991, when Israel organised an airlift of 15.000 people who had fled fighting at the end of Ethiopia’s civil war.
More than 100.000 Jews from Ethiopia are believed to live in the country. They make up one of the poorest sections of Israeli society.
