JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Aliyah and Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata predicted Wednesday that according to latest forecasts, 90,000 new immigrants will arrive in Israel by the end of 2021.
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Many Aliya organizations, including the Jewish Agency, Nefesh B’Nefesh and Qalita are reporting that the coronavirus pandemic has prompted a steep rise in the number of Jews expressing interest in immigrating.
The past few years have already seen a significant rise in Aliyah, with some 25,000 immigrants in 2010 and 35,000 in 2019, but the Jewish Agency has already stated that it expects 50,000 immigrants in 2021 alone, although so far there has been a drop in immigration in 2020 due to the ban on international flights.
Speaking in the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee Wednesday morning, Tamano-Shata said that she has instructed the ministry to draw up a five-year plan for immigration and absorption and said that she has made it a primary goal to encourage aliyah from around the world. Tamno-Shata, herself an Ethiopian immigrant, stressed that she intends to bring all the estimated 7,500 remaining members of the Falash Mura community in Ethiopia to Israel.
“This needs to be a first-level national priority,” she said. “This is an injustice that screams to the heavens. I get letters every day on this. It’s not Jewish to divide parents from children. It’s not just a question of who is Jewish and who is not.”
The Falash Mura are descendants of Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity in the late 19th century, but they are permitted to immigrate to Israel under the 1993 Law of Entry, despite the fact that under the Law of Return they are ineligible for automatic Israeli citizenship. Many Falash Mura have already arrived in Israel but families have been split apart in the meantime and many of those still waiting in Ethiopia have parents, children and siblings in Israel.
Some Ethiopian Beta Israel Jews in Israel are opposed to the immigration of the Falash Mura as they were traditionally ostracized by the main Jewish community for their conversion but the Israeli government ruled in 2015 that the remaining members of the community should be brought to Israel by 2020. Despite this, only some 2000 of the community have been brought to Israel since then.