Free Republic

About 240 immigrants from Ethiopia - half of them children - are scheduled to arrive in at Ben-Gurion International Airport, Monday afternoon, on the opening flight of Operation Wings of a Dove, organized by the Jewish Agency, following the government's decision, in July, to speed up the pace of aliyah and close the bringing of the Falash Mura to Israel. A total of 600 Falash Mura are slated to be absorbed at the Ivim Absorption Center in the Sha'ar Hanegev Council region. The rest will be spread among the 16 absorption centers operated by the Jewish Agency and the Absorption...

Israeli minister in Ethiopian racism row By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem Last Updated: 1:42am BST 03/08/2007 Israel's interior minister faces accusations of racism after he suggested suspending the policy of allowing Ethiopians with Jewish ancestry to move to the country. While rabbinical authorities judge the so-called Falash Mura to be sufficiently Jewish to qualify for Israeli citizenship, Meir Sheetrit said they were not really Jewish and had been let in only because of "political correctness". In remarks that incensed the large Falasha community already in Israel, he implied that Ethiopians were fleecing the state by leaving the economic hardship of...