Ethiopian Falash Mura arrive to the Immigration offices at the Ben Gurion airport (archive
Ethiopian Falash Mura arrive to the Immigration offices at the Ben Gurion airport (archiveFlash 90

The Cabinet at its weekly meeting today approved the proposal of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon to bring to Israel approximately 1,000 members of the Falash Mura community with children are in Israel.

Under the decision, the Interior Minister will be assigned responsibility of evaluating and approving entry of candidates meeting the criterion of having children who entered Israel as per previous government decisions regarding the Falash Mura community. In the framework of the decision, the parents will be able to bring with them their partners and their unmarried children who do not have children.

According to the proposal, non-Jews will be allowed to immigrate to Israel who are family members of those who came by virtue of belonging to the Falash Mura community.

Thus, for example, a Christian woman who married a men from the Falash Mura community and immigrated to Israel will be entitled to apply for her parents and single brothers if they reside in the Ethiopian immigrant camps and declare intention to convert.

The Aliyah and Integration Ministry will provide those entering Israel with the rights due to Ethiopian immigrants as has been given up to now under government decisions regarding the Falash Mura. The Conversion Division will also provide conversion services.

The present decision follows government decision #1911 from 11 August 206 on entry into Israel for family unification for community members from Gondar and Addis Ababa, and government decision #716 from 15 November 2015 regarding the bringing to Israel of the last community members waiting in Gondar and Addis Ababa.

A senior legal source involved in the matter explained to Arutz Sheva that the draft resolution introduces a standard that is not approved in regard to Jews in other countries.

"This is a proposal to bring outright non-Jews who weren't approved in any of the previous waves, even though those waves already blatantly failed with aliyah of people with a weak connection to Judaism, in contrast to the welcome immigration of our Ethiopian Jewish brothers who immigrated earlier," says the legal source.

"Now they're taking the last of the Falashmura wives who immigrated to Israel by virtue of the last wide-reaching decision that MK Neguise got in the 61st coalition, and that their parents can also immigrate with their unmarried children. True, they should belong to the community of those seeking immigration in Gondar or Addis Ababa - but these are people who were found ineligible for immigration in any previous expansive round.

"Even worse, this is a precedent that may be applied to immigrants from all over the world. The grandchild clause, and practically - the step-grandchild, is more than expansive enough. But at least today they don't extend the entitlement to parents, siblings, and older children.

"Now even this will break. As the Prime Minister's Office director suggests, spouses of Jewish grandchildren from other parts of the world will also ask to bring their relatives on aliyah. This is an endless chain of relatives. It's essential to stop this decision."