VARIOUS: Ethiopians stage protest over delay of transfer of Falasha Mura to Israel

Record ID: 689614

  • Title: VARIOUS: Ethiopians stage protest over delay of transfer of Falasha Mura to Israel
  • Date: 30th October 2005
  • Summary: (W3) ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (FILE) (REUTERS) ETHIOPIANS IN CAMP ETHIOPIANS ON PLANE EN ROUTE TO ISRAEL (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 14th November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA3IMDKB9V7P1ESGDD12X9F9OW
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Ethiopians staged a protest in Jerusalem on Sunday (October 30) to complain of delays in the promised transfer of some 20,000 Falasha Mura members to Israel.
    Several dozens of Ethiopians protested outside Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office in Jerusalem, holding pictures of loved ones awaiting word on their transfer to Israel.
    Israel said earlier this year it would double the pace of Jewish immigration from the Horn of African nation in order to bring out the remaining 20,000 Falasha Mura members by 2007.
    But the protesters said nothing had happened yet.
    "Our families are suffering from hunger and family separation; they are living in a critical condition in Addis Ababa and on the border; the Israeli government is continuing to just rejecting [the transfer] and not implementing its decision so we are appealing and demanding the government to implement its decision immediately and bring our families to Israel," a protestor told Reuters.
    Israel is already home to more than 100,000 Jews of Ethiopian origin, who trace their roots to the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The word Falasha means exiles in Ethiopia's Amharic language.
    The Falasha Mura, who were converted -- sometimes forcibly -- to Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries, are eager to migrate to revive their Jewish roots and escape poverty.
    Government advisors have said in the past that all the 20,000 Falasha Mura would get their wishes by 2007.
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