Falash Mura

For years, Ethiopian Jews were unable to own land and were often persecuted by the Christian majority of Ethiopia. Ethiopian Jews were afraid to touch non-Jews because they believed non-Jews were not pure, which also ostracized them from their Christian neighbors. For this reason, many Ethiopian Jews converted to Christianity to seek a better life in Ethiopia. The Jewish Agency's Ethiopia emissary, Asher Seyum, says the Falash Mura "converted in the 19th and 20th century, when Jewish relations with Christian rulers soured. Regardless, many kept ties with their Jewish brethren and were never fully accepted into the Christian communities. When word spread about the aliyah, many thousands of Falash Mura left their villages for Gondar and Addis Ababa, assuming they counted."[6]

In the Achefer woreda of the Mirab Gojjam Zone, roughly 1,000–2,000 families of Beta Israel were found.[7] Since then 5,000 people left Achefr/Gojam to join the Beta Israel community in Gondar. They are not included on the lists of 9,000 people who may be eligible for aliyah under the November 2015 government decision since they left their villages after 2010. According to an initial investigation by a committee of Orthodox rabbis, 90% of them are full Jews who can prove a connection to the Beta Israel through a matrilineal line.[8]

Beta Israel by ancestry, the Falash Mura believe they have just as much of a right to return to Israel as the Beta Israel themselves. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, a major player in the first wave of Beta Israel immigration to Israel, declared in 2002 that the Falash Mura had converted out of fear and persecution and therefore should be considered Jews.[5]

In 2009 then Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar agreed writing to Prime Minister Netanyahu, “The leading Halakhic [Jewish legal] authority, our master Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has already ruled that the Jews of Ethiopia are Jews in every sense. I, too, small in stature, have found and ruled that the Falash Mura, too, are kosher Jews who were forced to accept Christianity."[9]

The Falash Mura are not considered under the Israeli Law of Return. Over the years, there have been waves of limited immigrations into Israel through the Israel law of Entry.

Today, Falash Mura who move to Israel must undergo conversion on arrival, making it increasingly more difficult for them to get situated into Israeli society. The Beta Israel who immigrated and made Aliyah through Operation Moses and Operation Solomon were not required to undergo conversion because they were accepted as Jews under the Law of Return.

On February 16, 2003 the Israeli government passed Resolution 2958 which granted maternal descendants of the Beta Israel the right to immigrate to Israel under Israel's Law of Entry, and to obtain citizenship if they convert to Judaism.[10]

In January 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided that all of the Falash Mura from Ethiopia would be brought to Israel by the end of 2007.[11] However, no action was taken at that time.

In November 2015, the government approved a resolution pursuant to which approximately 9,000 members of the Beta Israel community with first degree relatives in Israel would be brought to Israel within 5 years i.e. by November 2020. As discussed below, that resolution has only been partially implemented.[12]

In 2018, The Israeli government allowed 1,000 Falash Mura to immigrate to Israel. However, members of the Ethiopian community say the process for immigration approval is poorly executed and inaccurate, dividing families. At least 80 percent of the tribe members in Ethiopia say they have first-degree relatives living in Israel, and some have been waiting for 20 years to immigrate.[13]

In 2020, the Israeli government approved a budget allowing for 2,000 Jews to immigrate into Israel.[14]

On November 28, 2021, the Israeli government approved the immigration of 3,000 Jews from War-torn Ethiopia into Israel. As of April 2022, none have yet been brought. [15]