RAMALLAH — Israel will receive the last organized immigration flight from Ethiopia in late August, a report said this week. The rightist Israeli channel 7 television said that a group of 400 of the Ethiopian Falashmura will be absorbed as part of a compromise deal between Israeli government officials. According to the report, some officials seeking to close the program while others pushed to keep it open. In 2010 the government began a program to bring 7,000 members of Falashmura to Israel. The report said that the aid compounds in Ethiopia that currently house those planning immigration will be handed over to Ethiopian authorities. The Falashmura predicament surfaced after Operation Moses, which brought some 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the 1980s. Demands then began for Israel to absorb the Falashmura, Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity or have other claims to Judaism. Some 26,000 Falashmura have since come to Israel and converted to Orthodox Judaism, making them eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return. The Law of Return, approved by the Israeli Knesset (parliament) in 1950, allows Jews and those with Jewish parents or grandparents, and spouses of the aforementioned, to settle in Israel and gain citizenship. In 2005, the government ceased all Falashmura immigration, claiming a continuation of the existing policy will result in the immigration of individuals completely unconnected to Judaism. However, immigration continued, in such frameworks as humanitarian cases and family reunification. Meanwhile, the Israeli Immigration and Population Authority revealed that illegal entry to Israel from Egypt has decreased due to security measures. The authority's data, cited by the television, shows that 34 citizens of various African countries entered Israel illegally in the first six months of 2013 compared to 9,570 citizens in the first half of 2012. According to the report, multiple developments have been credited for the dramatic change. One is the new security fence which covers the 230 km of border between Israel and Egypt.
Another is a law which went into effect in June 2012 under which illegal entrants to Israel who do not have refugee status are arrested. Recent Israeli polls showed that 50 percent of the public believes the large waves of immigration have had a negative impact on crime rates, and 62 percent blame immigrants for the rise in alcoholism among the Israel's youth. The polls also showed that nearly a third of respondents believe immigrants have made it more difficult for locals to find work and housing.
