Rabbi Moshe Solomon will be sworn-in to the Knesset in a week and a half, as number 14 on the Religious Zionism ticket.
In his first interview since the elections, Solomon talks about his immigration from Ethiopia to Israel: "At 6 years old, I heard that we can move to Jerusalem. I walk a thousand kilometers, I was in Sudan for three years as I waited to immigrate to Israel. I remember the moment that I got off the plane, it's a moment that you dream about for years. As opposed to my forefathers, I got to come to the Holy Land. The fact that I live among my people, in my country, is a great privilege, and I want to do a lot for it. The whole way here I believed that we will get to 14 seats and that I will get into the Knesset. I went around for months, and I felt that the public was saying: 'enough, we want a different government, that is honorable and upright'."
Regarding the treatment that the Ethiopian community in Israel receives, Solomon says: "I feel that we missed the Ethiopian community a bit. The Ethiopian community in essence is very rooted, Zionistic, and religious, with built-in values, with the feeling that it's fulfilling a dream and the will to be part of the Israeli society. The religious Zionists as a sector embraced them and did a lot of work from the top down, not as equals. As a nation that absorbs immigration, we have to understand that every tribe that comes here has its power and strengths and things to bring, if we look at everyone as equals, we will gain more. I think that this is something that can be fixed."
Solomon also spoke about his excitement for next week's swearing-in ceremony: "There's nothing more exciting than my mother coming with me to be sworn into the Knesset. On election day, I stopped by my mother, received her blessing, and went to vote with her in Ashkelon. My mother walked a thousand kilometers from Ethiopia with a one-month-old baby, and now she sees her son, an educator, a lieutenant colonel, and now a member of Knesset, too."